Hugh asks: "I work for a company that requires all its employees to use Internet Explorer, but they have no problem with "alternative" operating systems. As such, I would like to run FreeBSD but because there is no BSD IE binary, I would need to run the Solaris binary. BSD has a great Solaris compatibility layer, but I have not had any success getting it to work with IE. I was wondering if anyone else had any input on the topic?"

zmcgrew writes: "Linux has been out for the PS2 for a while, but what about the *BSD users? Well, now NetBSD is availible for the PS2! This means that NetBSD is now availible for 2 gaming consoles, the Dreamcast, and now the PS2. Wonder if the Game Cube and X-Box are in the works? =) I quote from the page, " To boot the kernel, you will require a special boot disc from SONY. The playstation2 can not read CD-Rs. Currently, the only such disc available is the SONY Playstation 2 Linux distribution, sold only in Japanese markets." Well, this leaves a bunch of people out, but maybe someone will figure out how to get the PS2 to boot & read CD-Rs... *Ahem* Maybe a *Co-Weekend project-ugh* for someone? =)" Looks like this port appeared last month -- which means that in a week or so, NetBSD will probably be running on the graphics subsystem alone ;)

JRAC writes: "Not long ago, anyone with a winmodem had pretty much no hope getting it to work under Linux. Now with projects like linmodems.org, Linux users with a dreaded winmodem actually have a chance at getting Linux to detect their modem. I myself am a Linux user with a winmodem which works fine, because mine has a Lucent chipset, which has fairly good Linux driver support. But I am trying to migrate to FreeBSD. I knew when I installed BSD that I had no chance getting my modem working, but it didn't bother me. Now after spending hours searching Google trying to find some Lucent drivers for FBSD, I have started to wonder when is someone going to start a BSD winmodem project? Aren't there any winmodem users out there running BSD that are tired of downloading drivers only to find they don't work. What we really need is bsdmodems.org"

hubertf writes: "There's news over at the NetBSD web site that Lennart Augustsson has added support for USB v2.0 devices into NetBSD-current. The new ehci driver is still in development but is in a working state for some mass storage devices, such as CD-RW drives. USB v2.0 offers a vast speed improvement (480Mb/s instead of 12Mb/s) over the original USB specification, and retains a good level of compatibility. For more details, see Lennart's announcement on current-users@netbsd.org."

A BSD User writes: "Yesterday, Daemon News announced a new line of BSD clothes. The clothes themselves look very cool and have a "Daemon Crossing" sign on them. It's nice to see Daemon News and their BSD Mall site filling in the hole recently left by WindRiver Systems."

Jaromir Dolecek writes: "The support on NetBSD for these old IBM boxes has reached the point where it's useful for general work and should provide stable multiuser service. The NetBSD/i386 installation tools were also updated to support installation on this type of machines. The next NetBSD formal release will include all this support. Until then, it's available through NetBSD/i386 binary snapshots of the development branch. For further information, see the original announcement, the NetBSD site and NetBSD/i386 on IBM PS/2 page. Besides the hobbyist and enthusiast value of this project, the general support for MCA (MicroChannel Architecture) bus will also be used within upcoming NetBSD RS/6000 port, since quite a few of IBM RS/6000 boxes have MCA bus too."

Beerwolff writes: "This time I have remembered the link to the Byte article that's a follow-up to two of Moshe Bar's previous articles comparing FreeBSD and Linux--This time with the new Linux VM. His Apache "results show that Linux is better at handling I/O cache than FreeBSD, and that FreeBSD is more efficient at building up and tearing down processes."" As usual, please take benchmarks with a grain of salt, caveat emptor, look before you leap, and so forth.

Daemon Staff writes: "Daemon News has just announced FreeBSD Training Classes and a really cool new t-shirt. They finally have one on black! Chris Coleman announces everything in his Editorial in this month's Daemon News Ezine."

BSDCon Chair writes "There's only one week to go before the inaugural BSDCon Europe conference in Brighton, UK. This is your last chance to register if you want to attend, as spaces are now limited. There's a very strong linueup of speakers, with many leading project members attending. Together with the social events arranged it promises to be an exciting weekend of technical discussion and merriment. We've tried to accomodate all the feedback we've received and so there are now student rates available, as well as day rates for those who can only attend for part of the conference. We've also provided a PDF form that you can fax back to us if you can't pay by credit card. All the details are on the conference website, http://www.bsdconeurope.org"

osiris writes: "Theo de Raadt has just announced that OpenBSD 3.0 is now accepting pre-orders. 3.0 will now be shipping with 3 cds supporting booting from cd for 6 architectures. Plus there is a bonus audio track on the cd :) Plus the all new pf firewall, which replaces Darren Reed's ipf. I hear pf is pretty rock solid with quite a few new features."

Murray Stokely writes: " The second edition hardcopy release of the FreeBSD Handbook is now available! Written by the FreeBSD Documentation Project, the FreeBSD Handbook is a comprehensive guide to installing and running FreeBSD. This book was typeset using entirely open source software. It covers the installation and day-to-day use of FreeBSD, the ports collection, kernel configuration, the X Window System, printing, FreeBSD's Linux binary compatibility support, upgrading your system from source by using the ``make world'' command, and much more. Among the many changes since the 1st edition are the inclusion of a full index, all new graphical network diagrams, several new chapters, more professional typesetting, and content that has been completely updated for FreeBSD 4.x and 5.0-CURRENT. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the handbook, you can do so online from the FreeBSD Mall."

proclus writes "OSX.1 users can now install the GNU-Darwin base distribution automatically with one command. As Root: "curl http://gnu-darwin.sourceforge.net/one_stop | csh"." This assummes you have curl or wget or something. From there you can install gnome, abiword, gimp or whatever. Looks pretty smooth (although I'm kinda confused how you get back to OSX.1 from there ;)

Kartoffel writes: "FreeBSD hackers have been hard at work getting the OS to run on PowerPC, IA64, and Sparc64 machines. These announcements are originally from FreeBSD.org. PowerPC: Benno Rice has committed a mega-patch which added support for OpenFirmware to the FreeBSD loader. The loader can now load a kernel over the network and execute it on an Apple iMac. IA64: After a few months of development Doug Rabson and Peter Wemm have committed patches which extends the FreeBSD/ia64 port's functionality and adds the possibility to boot on real hardware. Sparc64: Jake Burkholder and Thomas Moestl have been porting FreeBSD to the ultra sparc for the past few months and first booted a machine into single user mode on the 18th of October. The log from the serial console is available."

jogega writes "There is an article at OnLamp that gives some advice on how to sell BSD solutions commercially. It talks about the best way to present your solution, get the job done, and most important show that BSD is a very strong alternative in the market."

UnanimousCoward writes: "I've just downloaded OroborOSX, "A modified Oroborus-based X11 window manager for use with XFree86 and XDarwin on Mac OS X." It's truly a wm worthy of standing side-by-side with Aqua in rootless mode. Here are some screenshots from Jonathan Tyzack (I'm too lazy to create my own, but my experience is the same). Using MacGimp under OroborOSX is awesome ..." The original Oroborus looks interesting as well; the original author has discontinued work on Oroborus, but it looks like the code has found a nice new application.

Dave H3 asks: " Does anyone know of any U.S. based firms that provide up to 24/7 telephone support for FreeBSD? I've been tasked with submitting a business proposal to list at least three potential, established, vendors. Other than Windriver I've not had much luck. I've checked several FreeBSD sites, including FreeBSD.org, to no avail."

LordGibson writes: "DaemonNews.org is taking up some of the slack following Wind River's massive layoffs of FreeBSD developers. 'Daemon News has been a BSD organization from day one. We are now happy to announce that we will be publishing our own FreeBSD CD sets, beginning with the next release, 4.5, scheduled for January 2002. We offer CD subscriptions, and our subscription plans can be for any desired combination of FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Darwin. Since the FreeBSD Mall isn't offering subscriptions any more, you can get your BSD fix from us--at a better price, too.' You can read all about it here or jump for joy and go directly to the subscriptions page."

JigSaw writes: "OSNews features a very interesting interview regarding FreeBSD 5 with the guy responsible for the very good (technically) FreeBSD VM among other things. Matt Dillon talks about everything: FreeBSD 5, Linux, .NET and much more. Additionally, OSNews also includes two mini interviews with the NetBSD and OpenBSD head developers."

proclus writes: "The GNU-Darwin packages are compatible with Apple's newly released Darwin-1.4.1, and we now have Net Installation instructions for Darwin-only users. Our Bootable Installer CD is now in beta, thanks to the efforts of GNU-Darwin developer rrp. As you can see in the screenshot, our packages work fine with the XFree86 software which is now a part of Apple's Darwin distribution. We have recently packaged the latest versions of Mac OS X.1 compatible OpenSSH and XFree86. (Our older OpenSSH and XFree86 packages appear to be broken.) It is important for OS X.1 users to upgrade their OpenSSH. This is a great time to check out our other packaged offerings, which are also Darwin-1.4.1 and Mac OS X.1 compatible. OSX.1 users who are new to GNU-Darwin might like to try our new Net Installer. Just follow the OS X-specific directions at the top of the script. "

SidVicious and Intosi both wrote in with news that Wind River Systems (WRS), who had acquired BSDi's software assets earlier this year, including a team of FreeBSD developers, has laid off those developers. This has also been reported in other places, such as DaemonNews. This raises some interesting questions; for example, what happens to the "FreeBSD" trademark, which Wind River currently own. Read on for Wind River's answers to this and other questions.