October-December 2003 FreeBSD Status Report 182
Dan writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Scott Long has posted the 2003 FreeBSD year-end edition status report. He says many new projects are starting up and gaining momentum, including SGI XFS port, MIPS, PowerPC on PPCBug-based embedded boards, and networking locking and multithreading. The end of 2003 also saw the release of FreeBSD 4.9, the first stable release to have greater than 4GB support for the ia32 platform. Work on FreeBSD 5.2 also finished up and was released early in January of 2004."
How can BSD have XFS? (Score:4, Interesting)
XFS is GPL. Is SGI changing to a BSD license?
Good heavens, that is a ridiculous quantity of acronyms!
Re:How can BSD have XFS? (Score:2)
Re:How can BSD have XFS? (Score:5, Insightful)
And then I suppose OSX could have it, too...
Are they starting from scratch? (Score:2, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How can BSD have XFS? (Score:5, Informative)
There is also a fair bit of GPL code in the userland (starting with gcc), and it is distributed in binary form by the FreeBSD project, but of course the virality clause of the GPL doesn't affect that, because it's "mere aggregation".
OS X? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:OS X? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the primary reason there was more contributing back in the KHTML/Safari case was that there is a lot of user-visible improvement to be done there that everyone can agree on. Apple's focus in the lower-level parts of the system is often different enough from other projects that they aren't applicable directly.
Open source projects (especially the BSDs) have a bit more of a perfectionist "find a good solution before doing anything" mentality compared to proprietary software, where it's more often "we want feature X, make it work somehow".
Actually sometimes I think (feel fee to disagree) Linux has a sort of "lets do it somehow right away and then improve it" mentality, i.e. more by evolution than by design, which also gives good functional results but less consistency.
Re:OS X? (Score:5, Informative)
$FreeBSD: src/sbin/md5/md5.c,v 1.20.2.5 2001/12/26 09:44:56 phk Exp $
$FreeBSD: src/sbin/mount_msdos/mount_msdos.c,v 1.19 2000/01/08 16:47:55 ache Exp $
$FreeBSD: src/sbin/ping6/ping6.c,v 1.4.2.6 2001/07/06 08:56:47 ume Exp $
$FreeBSD: src/sbin/reboot/reboot.c,v 1.17 2002/10/06 16:24:36 thomas Exp $
$FreeBSD: src/sbin/reboot/reboot.c,v 1.17 2002/10/06 16:24:36 thomas Exp $
$FreeBSD: src/sbin/shutdown/shutdown.c,v 1.23 2002/03/21 13:20:48 imp Exp $
The command run was none other than "strings
Re:OS X? (Score:2)
OSX's kernel is a PPC port of the Mach microkernel.
OSX's VM is tailored after the likes of FreeBSD 4.
OSX's networking stack implements *BSD* sockets.
OSX's programming documentation prominently features "FreeBSD" at the bottom of nearly every manpage
JKH, one of the main founders (an
Re:OS X? (Score:4, Interesting)
It would be interesting to hear from Mac OS X developers on their interaction with the FreeBSD developers community. I doubt there is much, if any. It seems to me that Apple chose FreeBSD as a good starting point and ran with it, on occasion checking back to see if there's any good new stuff made. They are not after the hardcore FreeBSD users, but the folks that once in a while would like to have a shell and basic *nix functionality available to them, without sacrificing the pretty windows. Not surprisingly these are rarely the people that actively contribute to fbsd.
(I think I dug a hole for myself. I didn't mean the Apple users don't run fbsd or can't contribute, but that most users that seek *nix in OSX don't need fbsd [otherwise they'd just run fbsd]. As such, there is little user feedback to Apple and no feedback to BSD.)
-s
Re:OS X? (Score:2)
That's why I got an apple, anyway -- to get a laptop that behaved like BSD but I didn't have to endlessly tweak. That, and to run NetBSD on PowerPC so I could endlessly tweak.
Re:OS X? (Score:2)
Re:OS X? (Score:2)
The thing I like about FreeBSD is that I can set it up, and then forget about it. Upgrading is easy, and requires minimal downtime (upgrading from 4.8 to 4.9 produced about a minute of downtime, and the fact the ports are upgraded separately from the bas
Re:OS X? (Score:2)
Re:OS X? (Score:1)
Re:OS X? (Score:2, Insightful)
well.. here is the trail of logic for the "BSD is dying" troll: BSD is dying -> major computer manufacturer like Apple uses BSD?? -> Apple is dying Then again, I'm not inclined to refer to Apple as a major computer manufacturer (with about 5% of the world personal computer market). Then again, the world computer market is farly big.. so 5% isn't really that shabby.
Anyway, I use FreeBSD. I figure it will maybe change into something else.. but it won't die. Also, I don't see how Apple could hind
How good is digital camera support? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How good is digital camera support? (Score:5, Informative)
Just do a 'make install clean' in that directory, and it will install gphoto and all of the depedencies it requires.
FreeBSD also got some(all of them, maybe?) of the GUI applications that uses gphoto, like gtkam. KDE probably has one too.
Re:How good is digital camera support? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How good is digital camera support? (Score:1)
Re:How good is digital camera support? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Want digital camera support? Use OS X. (Score:1)
That's a lotta stuff! (Score:3, Informative)
tigerhost.com needs to lay off the styles (Score:1)
Re:tigerhost.com needs to lay off the styles (Score:2)
- Links that "surprise" people tend to make them more inclined to see what else they can find.
- If you can find them, then I imagine just about anyone can, huh?
Re:tigerhost.com needs to lay off the styles (Score:2)
And in closing, it does not make me more inclined to see what else is there. Unless I'm at "Homestarrunner.com" I don't want to hunt for easter eggs, your site (being a business) should not make me hunt for information. Everything I need shou
Re:tigerhost.com needs to lay off the styles (Score:1)
I like BSD (Score:2, Informative)
I run FreeBSD on a webserver and I have been quite satisfied with it. I tried 5.2 and ran into some problems so I currently run 4.8. I think it makes a great server, I had a decent uptime, until the #$@#$ power was tripped, but it recovered perfectly. I'm glad that they are continuing to work to develop it and I will definitely install 5.2 once it is in stable release.
Merging in OpenBSD PF.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Merging in OpenBSD PF.. (Score:5, Informative)
Helevius
Re:Merging in OpenBSD PF.. (Score:2)
Re:Merging in OpenBSD PF.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Merging in OpenBSD PF.. (Score:2)
As other posters mentions, it's in the FreeBSD ports. But why use the port when you can use the real thing on OpenBSD ;-)
So... (Score:1)
BSD isn't dying then? I thought with Apple onboard it would be dying faster or something like that since they are on the way out as well. Btw mods, i have an Apple mac.
Re:So... (Score:1)
Re:So... (Score:1)
Re:So... (Score:1)
I just off the phone with (Score:2, Funny)
Enderly And so (Score:1)
Anyway I only used FreeBSD with bochs and i would say it is ok.
FreeBSD: Project Evil (Score:4, Funny)
It's remarkable how applicable this name is
Here is a more detailed description [gw.com].
Re:FreeBSD: Project Evil (Score:1)
http://www.porcupine.org/satan/
BSD: a lively corpse (Score:3, Funny)
Despite the numerous BSD is Dying trolls on here, it seems to be quite a lively corpse.
I have half a dozen 4.9 servers, a couple of 5.2 laptops, and I'm playing with the Motorola 88k RISC port of OpenBSD trying to get it to load on an MVME187
One of these days I'll get all crazy and complete the family by putting NetBSD on my toaster oven
BSD Dead? *CACKLE* NOT! (Score:2, Interesting)
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.htm
From those uptimes I'd say that BSD is most certainly not dead, it's quite hapily humming along reliably.
Re:BSD Dead? *CACKLE* NOT! (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe those uptimes are load balancer => N=1 FreeBSD boxes.
FreeBSD still just rocks for overall uptime - I've gone four years without any trouble except on my much abused R&D boxes - the production stuff just keeps on producing
Re:BSD Dead? *CACKLE* NOT! (Score:1)
Re:BSD Dead? *CACKLE* NOT! (Score:1)
VMS uptimes are due to it being cracked and then patched by the 'administrator', who wants no more downtime
type cluster_name::*.*;*
I mean really
A Long Way in a Year... (Score:4, Interesting)
I tested it for the first time about a year ago, and was seduced by the ports tree... it gave me the impression that BSD is a little more sleek in structure than most Linux distros.
I upgraded my home server to 4.9 a few months ago, and the only downtimes were due to power outages... and after finding a little BIOS tweak in my Tyan Tiger, I think those will be minimized too
This weekend, I migrated from XP to 4.9 for my desktop machine after drag-n-drop of all things decided to quit working... wtf? There's a few things that I anticipate will be tricky, like Xinerama support for my Radeon 7000 VE dual display, tweaking Vmware so it'll work correctly, and openoffice is being strangely adamant at not compiling. I'm not much of a coder, so things like this tend to make me run to the 'net for assistance, but that's what a supportive userbase is for.
Kudos to the FreeBSD team for attracting yet another user with a well-structured and well-executed OS.
Re:A Long Way in a Year... (Score:2)
This is an X-windows/ATI problem. The issue is that most ATI cards are simply ATI branded and don't work exactly the same as another ATI branded card of the same model. I had this same problem both under FreeBSD and Linux. ATI manufactured cards would work fine, but ATI branded cards would not.
openoffice is being strangely adamant at not compiling.
Do _NOT_ attempt to compile OpenOffice. It si
Re:GOD Bless America (Score:4, Funny)
Re:GOD Bless America (Score:2, Funny)
Re:GOD Bless America (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:explain this (Score:3, Funny)
Besides the obvious similarities between Linux users and penguins, such as the propensity towards pear-shaped anatomies and strict black-and-white orthodoxies about software licenses, there's also something very fishy about them waddling around talking like Burgess Meredith.
Re:Anything NOT in Linux? (Score:3, Insightful)
ridiculous stability as priority: freebsd
Re:Anything NOT in Linux? (Score:3, Funny)
i guess that makes me a karma whore. AWESOME!
Re:Anything NOT in Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)
As for your response to networking locking.. It has nothing to do with NFS and everything to do with Giant (the giant mutex that exists in the kernel). FreeBSD 5.x is largely an attempt to break away from this giant lock.
As for multithreading, both linux and freebsd have had it for ages. And it hasn't been that great in either one of them up until KSEs in FreeBSD 5.x and the revamped threading in Linux 2.6. FreeBSD had very good userland threading performance for processes needing to use threads on a single processor, but no native SMP threading support outside of using Linux's threading library (clone()).
As for PAE, correct me if I"m wrong, but it has NOT been several years. PAE, officially AFAIK, is still relatively new to Linux as well.
Re:Anything NOT in Linux? (Score:3, Insightful)
What idiot modded this up.
Re:The magic 8-Ball never lies (Score:2)
yes (Score:1, Redundant)
threads (Score:1, Informative)
when dealing with Linux. It applies to Solaris,
Windows, Mach+BSD (NeXT, Darwin, OSF/1), VMS,
OS/400, and zOS (OS/390). To some extent, it may
apply to any BSD or real UNIX.
No full-featured server or desktop OS can do a
fork() faster than Linux can. (vmware, pSOS,
eCos, and so on are not full-featured OSes)
NPTL speed has nothing to do with lightweight
versions of fork() or clone(). NPTL beats the
old LinuxThreads library because NPTL avoids
having an extra management
Re:Anything NOT in Linux? (Score:3, Interesting)
2) PAE has not been in there for years. It was a collection of hacked patches for years, finally getting released into linux 2.6, and backported to the RedHat Advanced Server 3.0 (Linux 2.4) kernel.
Both Linux and FreeBSD had badly designed multi-threaded subsystmes for a while. They both just came up with sane, though diff
Re:FACT:Sells ok on Ebay (Score:1, Offtopic)
The FreeBSD and NetBSD listings get alot of views. Never know why poeple look and not buy, price? Just curious? I dunno but so far I have sold as many FreeBSD CDs as any Linux Distro. Just listed NetBSD this week and have one sale already.
Linux wise Fredora and Rehat are my top
Re:FACT:Sells ok on Ebay (Score:1)
On the other hand, I am [overly/highly] suspicous of buying software on ebay and have not bought anything from there for that reason, so I may not be a representative sample.
Re:FACT:Sells ok on Ebay (Score:1)
Re:FACT:Sells ok on Ebay (Score:1)
Re:Which FreeBSD to install?? (Score:1)
I'll give my left pinky if you don't find help there.
Re:Which FreeBSD to install?? (Score:1)
I'm doing 5.2-Current with Fluxbox for my desktop. I suggest you just make boot floppies for 5.2-Release and do a net install. Otherwise, just download 5.2-Release ISO and do minimal install.. then CVSup the sources to Current and make buildworld, make installworld. Though, if you don't have a very new computer, 5.2-Release will be just fine. I haven't used 4.9-Release so I can't offer much on it. I use 5.2 because ifconfig and acpi weren't working good enough for my laptop when 5.1 and 4.8 were out.
Re:Which FreeBSD to install?? (Score:1)
p
Re:Which FreeBSD to install?? (Score:2, Funny)
Uhm, thats a GOOD thing.
Re:not as good as DragonFlyBSD (Score:2)