We've covered the movement to get Java 1.2 ported to the BSDs for a while now. After Linux got in on the act a couple of months ago, keepper was the first to write in with a link to this BSDi press release announcing the availability of Java 2 for BSD. Looks like BSD/OS will get it first (they're beta-ing it now). Then FreeBSD gets it, at which point (I assume) it'll be open to the other BSDs to take as they want.

luddite writes: "Two guys at Purdue University have assmbled a FreeBSD based cluster built cheap - very cheap. With under $2500 spent on the cluster, it's one sweet set-up. Just shows that if you take the time and put some effort into something, money doesn't have to limit your resources! The site also goes into some detail about what the cluster is made of, where they found the parts, how it's been configured, and what they plan to use it for."

Moderator writes: "Wouldn't it be nice if Microsoft ported Internet Explorer to FreeBSD? Apparently, someone else thinks so, and set up a petition for Microsoft to port IE to FreeBSD. Hey, I'm no Microsoft lover, but IE is better than Netscape." Hmm. Personally, I'm more of a "xterm -geometry =120x50 -e w3m" man, but to each his own I suppose.

BSDJoe writes "The June daemonnews newsletter has been posted" Included in this issue are an introduction to the ports system, a length tutorial devoted to writing writing a CAM SCSI controller driver, and a great editorial about how to attract users without dumbing down.

ocipio writes "The article on sfgate.com discusses the use of FreeBSD on the largest Internet companies in the world. FreeBSD is used by Yahoo!, Hotmail, MindSpring, UUNet, and Verio. BSD will also get an indirect boost next year as Apple releases Mac OS X. Comparing the BSD family to Linux, BSDi's Rose said, "We think we have a product that's more reliable, scalable and robust for high-performance, infrastructure-grade computing." Yahoo!'s Chief David Filo agrees, noting he couldn't imagine moving to a proprietary system. "

pestel writes: "BSDI has acquired Telenet System Solutions, a hardware supplier that sells systems built using BSD. You can see the press release over at Daily Daemon News. Good news for BSD people looking for hardware from workstations to huge servers." Built using BSD? Well, built for BSD rather. Interesting news for VA Linux; remember, competitors in the rearview mirror may be closer than they appear...

Anonymous Coward writes "Jim O'Gorman has an article at bsdtoday.com about choosing an OS for a firewall project. While OpenBSD has a lot of followers, find out why Jim chose FreeBSD instead."

In another indication that those advertising dollars made available by the BSDI merger are being put to good use, OS Opinion is running an article explaining FreeBSD. Nothing new if you're already a BSD afficionado, but it does explain most of FreeBSD's salient points in a easy-to-understand way. Perfect for trying to convince the boss that this "three dee bee ess" stuff you're using to keep the company running is up to the task.

Anonymous Coward writes: "In this interview, part III, over at GNULinux.com you can read what Jordan Hubbard, CEO of FreeBSD Inc., has to say about the future of FreeBSD. '[...] Finally, the notion of the PC is changing. One could even argue that the PC has widened to encompass the PowerPC, because there are all these iMacs on peoples' desks, and according to the original mandate we should be looking at those iMacs, too, which is what we're doing,' sounds pretty sweet." This article provides a positive (but sober) overview of recent and anticipated progress from the devil-suit side of free software. You might also be interested in Jordan's answer to the question, "Can FreeBSD scale to the PDA?"

Jim Mock writes in to "announce the hardcopy release of the FreeBSD Handbook. Written by the FreeBSD Documentation Project, the FreeBSD Handbook is a comprehensive guide to installing and running FreeBSD, and 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." Read on for more details.

Anonymous Coward writes: "One of the more significant statements of the session [at Apple's WorldWide Developer's Conference] came when Magee told the audience that the Mach kernel and the BSD layer which lays upon it are inseparable. "Every application [that runs in Mac OS X] is a BSD application," said Magee. "You can't keep the system running without the Mach kernel and the BSD layer." This quashes the public rumour that Apple will be able to ship a "lite" version of Mac OS X which will contain only the smallest possible bit of BSD, or another that questions Apple reluctance to move its tools to Linux."

Duke of URL writes: "Sam Williams, of Upside Today has an article discussing OpenBSD's overall design philosophy, with good quotes from Theo de Raadt, the OpenBSD project leader. Williams also covers how the OpenBSD project goes about supporting their financial needs (by selling t-shirts, CDs, and posters) and briefly covers their lack of desire to receive venture capital despite offers. "

drix was the first to write in with this "Standard fare roots of the BSD/hacker movement piece over at Salon. The picture of the FreeBSD devil guy is pretty cool." This is actually another chapter in Andrew Leonard's Free Software Project online book. Well written, but occasional errors (FreeBSD and BSDI have not merged, for example) cast doubt on some of the facts. Informed comment from people who were there would be appreciated.

jim writes: "The latest issue (Issue #04) of The FreeBSD 'zine is now available on the Web site. Yes, we know we're a day early -- all the more reason to go check it out now." Those with laptops, or particularly recent hardware will no doubt find the hints about USB Floppy Drives of particular interest.

Dan Langille, creator and maintainer of the FreeBSD Diary, has just unleashed FreshPorts on the world. In a nutshell, this is a changing list of new and updated ports in the FreeBSD ports tree, making it easy to keep bang up to date with new software as it's ported. It's a natural companion to Wolfram Schneider's fortnightly port update messages.

In another installment of the "BSD code popping up in odd places story", Intel are promulgating the Extensible Firmware Interface, a new abstraction layer for the "operating system and platform firmware". As this PDF slideshow shows, libc in the EFI layer is from FreeBSD (page 9), as is the TCP/IP stack (page 11). Finally Intel appear to be releasing the whole thing under something very close to a BSD license (page 15). Which is nice.

Should you be anywhere near the Hyatt Regency in Monterey, Calif. in mid-October then you'll be perfectly placed to attend this year's BSD Conference. More details can be had from the Conference Web site, or from the precis you'll see if you read on.

darkuncle writes: "While doing some research into setting up an OpenBSD box as a firewall/NAT box/DHCP server for my home network, I ran across a cool writeup at 2600 Australia about how to implement IPv6 on OpenBSD. For anybody that's been thinking about exploring IPv6, this article (along with the FAQ linked above) provides some good starting points. "

Looking for something to do with that old PS/2 in the cupboard? NetBSD can now be booted on it. Support is strictly experimental at the moment, and available as a patchset to the main code.

DaemonNews for May is now hot off the presses^Wweb server. Feature articles this month include a BSD viewpoint on Spring Comdex, an overview of what to do post-installation, and an investigation of the viability of RAIDframe.