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Operating Systems DRM Graphics Software BSD Linux Technology

PC-BSD Follows a Rolling Release Model, Gets Renamed To TrueOS 132

Posted by BeauHD from the fun-for-the-whole-family dept.
prisoninmate quotes a report from Softpedia: By following a rolling release model, TrueOS promises to be a cutting-edge and modern FreeBSD-based operating system for your personal computer, designed with security and simplicity in mind -- all while being stable enough to be deployed on servers. TrueOS will also make use of the security technologies from the OpenBSD project, and you can get your hands on the first Beta ISO images right now. The development team promises to offer you weekly ISO images of TrueOS, but you won't have to download anything anymore due to constant updates thanks to the rolling release model. TrueOS will use LibreSSL instead of OpenSSL, offer Linux DRM 4.7 compatibility for supporting for Intel Skylake, Haswell, and Broadwell graphics, and uses the pkg package manage system by default. "TrueOS combines the convenience of a rolling release distribution with the failsafe technology of boot environments, resulting in a system that is both current and reliable. TrueOS now tracks FreeBSD's 'Current' brand and merges features from select FreeBSD developer branches to enhance support for newer hardware and technologies," reads today's announcement.
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PC-BSD Follows a Rolling Release Model, Gets Renamed To TrueOS More

PC-BSD Follows a Rolling Release Model, Gets Renamed To TrueOS

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  • BSD on the rise (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 02, 2016 @05:08AM (#52813797)

    I predict a steep rise in popularity now then BSD has a cooler name.

    Ref: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit/_tl4WBguewE/x-00eYR0u4AJ

    • Re:BSD on the rise (Score:4, Informative)

      by 605dave ( 722736 ) on Friday September 02, 2016 @05:21AM (#52813827) Homepage

      That's why I respect Linus so much. Not only has he helped shaped one of the most important open source projects of all time, he has done it with grace and humility.

      The way he handled the above linked question is perfect, and it reminded me of his relationship with Richard Stallman. I have great respect for Stallman's work, but take issue with his personality. There is a documentary about Linux (RevolutionOS?) that has a clip from both of them receiving an award. Stallman takes the stage and proceeds to rag on Linus and the Linux name, and how it should be GNU/Linux. Linus was standing on the stage next to him having to hear this, and just smiled.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

        I love the "GNU/Linux" debate. Is the "GNU/" bit required by GNU's license? No? End of discussion.
        You can ask nicely, but don't continue to bitch about it ad infinitum if the request is turned down.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          More to the point, it just smacks of sour grapes.

        • Well GNU stands for GNU Not Unix. Which is a project to make a fully Unix Like OS without any of the traditional Unix code. As at that time The BSD Unix code branch was under major legal pressures due to companies claiming ownership. So the GNU was to make a Fully Unix like OS without any of the Unix code.

          This process was originally meant to be used with HURD however that project was too ambitious with not having the right people at the helm. Linus with the Linux Kernel with more of a dictatorial leaders

        • The GPL v4 requires all linked code to prefix GNU/ to the name of the product and the author's first born child.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Trogre ( 513942 )

        It's also funny that the most widely spread Linux distribution on the planet, Android, does not ship with the GNU tools and therefore truly is not GNU/Linux.

        • Android isn't considered a Linux distribution. Neither is the Tivo. Or any of the various other applications that embed the linux kernel. It's disingenuous to make that sort of assertion.

      • Linus has his dark side as well. There are many reports of him going on crazy rants due to disagreements in approaches.

        As for GNU/Linux vs Linux... I find myself having to use GNU/Linux over just Linux now not due to consideration of Stallman for in fact I rather he just go away for the good of the GNU and Free software. But because of lack of differentiating Android (And the other Linux based OS) with The more traditional Linux Distributions.

      • Informative? Maybe, but how is it even relevant to this thread? Should have been 'Offtopic'!

      • That's why I respect Linus so much. Not only has he helped shaped one of the most important open source projects of all time, he has done it with grace, humility, and a healthy dose of profanity.

        FTFY.

        Yes, Linus has done great things in the past ~20 years. But lets not kid ourselves that he can be a total dick about many things. Often it's for a good reason that he is passionate about. Other times not so much.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arth1 ( 260657 )

      I predict a steep rise in popularity now then BSD has a cooler name.

      BSD doesn't have a new name. PC-BSD is renamed.
      This won't affect NetBSD, FreeBSD (which PC-BSD uses as upstream) or OpenBSD.

      If anything, the name change of this minor distro will only serve to confuse users, who now has no indicator that this is a BSD OS, and the new release model makes it much harder to use for businesses who like to test upgrades and don't like moving targets.

    • OS X and iOS are BSD based OS's. Much like how Android is a Linux based OS.

      • If you are talking kernels, OS X and iOS are based on Apple's derived XNU kernel, derived from Mach 3.0. If you are talking userland, Android has BSD userland, not GNU. So neither way is it analogous
    • The name might actually make a difference [boston.com]:

      Psychologists have determined, for example, that shares in companies with easy-to-pronounce names do indeed significantly outperform those with hard-to-pronounce names. Other studies have shown that when presenting people with a factual statement, manipulations that make the statement easier to mentally process - even totally nonsubstantive changes like writing it in a cleaner font or making it rhyme or simply repeating it - can alter people’s judgment of the

  • Now all we need is a post about OpenBSD then we'll have the full set. Maybe changing to SafeOS??

  • TrueOS? Seriously? (Score:3)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Friday September 02, 2016 @06:00AM (#52813943) Homepage

    Apart from being an utterly uninspired naff name, its already been done - OSF/1 (Alpha unix) was renamed to Tru64 by compaq which did precisely zip for its sales or penetration. Product names get changed when the people managing them can't think of anything else better to do to promote it.

    • mostrly true... and sad... a s*it is a s*it even if you call it a cake

      Apart from being an utterly uninspired naff name, its already been done - OSF/1 (Alpha unix) was renamed to Tru64 by compaq which did precisely zip for its sales or penetration. Product names get changed when the people managing them can't think of anything else better to do to promote it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I believe the intent here is for vampires to have their own OS.

    • The saga of PC-BSD and TrueOS (Score:5, Informative)

      by unixisc ( 2429386 ) on Friday September 02, 2016 @08:35AM (#52814449)

      Apart from being an utterly uninspired naff name, its already been done - OSF/1 (Alpha unix) was renamed to Tru64 by compaq which did precisely zip for its sales or penetration. Product names get changed when the people managing them can't think of anything else better to do to promote it.

      PC-BSD user here (for home computing) and fully agree w/ you. In fact, my recent experience has been abysmal, after I had loved using the OS for months

      A bit of background here. My system had previously been updated (on a rolling basis) to 10.2, and had the latest Lumina - I think 0.7 or 0.8. I had left the country for some weeks, when 10.3 was out, so when I returned, I tried upgrading to 10.3. It went upto the CLI login, and stopped. I found nothing online that would revive it, and so decided to reinstall it from a 10.0 DVD, which I had received 2 years ago. It wiped my system - I thought that being ZFS, it would have kept everything and just updated the parts necessary. Oh, well!

      So I ended up reinstalling PC-BSD, and then did the updates, but that went up to 10.2. Which would be fine, except that it doesn't recognize the PC-BSD update server anymore, and so I'm stuck w/ really old versions of both Chromium and Firefox. Gmail won't work w/ the Thunderbird version that they have, even though I previously used Gmail seamlessly w/ the last Thunderbird. And I can't even get Lumina. It's so frustrating - I've downloaded 'TrueOS' on an USB and will try installing from scratch this weekend - see if it's any different. This time, I was careful not to put any data in my PC-BSD installation (I do have my old data backed up on a separate external drive)

      On a different note, I also have a SteamOS download, so I'm now also considering replacing PC-BSD w/ SteamOS. Only thing I need to know - does it support me doing normal computing stuff like Ubuntu would, or is it only possible to play Steam games? I've stopped using Windows for things like shopping or banking, and had been using PC-BSD, but w/ my system being forced back to something old, I have to look at the alternatives. If SteamOS works for that, I'd use it, given how PC-BSD has fallen off. Otherwise, I was waiting for PC-BSD 11 w/ a SteamOS jail where I could have played my Steam game

      Back to VioI8's comment, it's true - Tru64 had been used before - it was the stupid renaming by Compaq of Digital UNIX, which they could have just called Compaq Unix or OSF/1. In the TrueOS page re: this announcement [trueos.org]

      Many are very familiar with the name PC-BSD® and may be wondering why we changed the name. Although it's a household name for so many, the developers realized this was a time for a new name that would better convey our message. Lead developer Kris Moore had this to say: "We've already been using TrueOS® for the server side of PC-BSD®, and it made sense to unify the names. PC-BSD® doesn't reflect server or embedded well. TrueOS® Desktop/Server/Embedded can be real products, avoids some of the alphabet soup, and gives us a more catchy name." One important lesson learned from going to conferences is that people can have a hard time remembering the acronym that makes up our name, which is not a good place to start with marketing a product. We're confident the TrueOS® name will allow people to quickly identify the project. Subsequently, we will be able to convey our brand message in a better and more unified way.

      WTF? PC-BSD at least tells us that this is a BSD distro specially designed for desktops/laptops and fine-tuned for ease of use. TrueOS doesn't even tell us whether it's UNIX - it's like they're running away from any perception that they may be UNIX, or trying to make people think that they're a Linux distro when they're not.

      And speaking of TrueOS, their own heritage is really bizarre. The team claims that they took PC-BSD w/ all the improvements, stripped out the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Artemis3 ( 85734 )

        SteamOS is based on Debian, and yes you can use any desktop you want with it.

        Accessing the Desktop [steampowered.com]

  • Tracking Current? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 02, 2016 @06:39AM (#52814041)

    So now PC-B, er, TrueOS is tracking FreeBSD-CURRENT? What exactly is their intended use-case? From the wonderful FreeBSD manual [freebsd.org]:

    FreeBSD-CURRENT is the “bleeding edge” of FreeBSD development and FreeBSD-CURRENT users are expected to have a high degree of technical skill. Less technical users who wish to track a development branch should track FreeBSD-STABLE instead.

    FreeBSD-CURRENT is made available for three primary interest groups:
    1. Members of the FreeBSD community who are actively working on some part of the source tree.
    2. Members of the FreeBSD community who are active testers. They are willing to spend time solving problems, making topical suggestions on changes and the general direction of FreeBSD, and submitting patches.
    3. Users who wish to keep an eye on things, use the current source for reference purposes, or make the occasional comment or code contribution.

    FreeBSD-CURRENT should not be considered a fast-track to getting new features before the next release as pre-release features are not yet fully tested and most likely contain bugs. It is not a quick way of getting bug fixes as any given commit is just as likely to introduce new bugs as to fix existing ones. FreeBSD-CURRENT is not in any way “officially supported”.

    I thought PC-BSD was a nice, easily-set-up systemd-free desktop OS with ZFS. I've used it on older systems and it was pretty nice. No way would I use it for anything important if it's going to be tracking Current, though, and have to deal with the headache of extra bugs and instability. Even FreeBSD doesn't recommend it unless you're a tester or contributor.

    Am I missing something? What are the benefits of this move? Will the TrueOS team be able to provide support for the inevitable bugs that come up and annoy users?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Tracking current does not means it WILL be in sync with -current, but that selected picks from -current will make a sort of 'snapshot' like many other rolling distro do.
      Apart from that: TrueOS/PC-BSD is the desktop distro made by IX, the same people behind FreeNAS and its commercial service (TrueNAS).

    • The PC-BSD update server has been down for months now - haven't been able to update from 10.2 to 10.3. The one time I did that, I got stuck on CLI. And even at 10.2, I can't update any of my applications - am stuck w/ ancient versions of FireFox and Chromium, and can't even get Lumina ;-(

  • Netcraft confirms it... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    BSD is dying.

  • PC-BSD commits suicide (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dnaumov ( 453672 ) on Friday September 02, 2016 @07:02AM (#52814081)

    is more like it. Making the OS track FreeBSD -CURRENT sounds like a phenomenal way to get everybody sane to install it NOT EVER.

  • TruOS (Score:4, Insightful)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Friday September 02, 2016 @08:01AM (#52814293)
    The BSD-based operating system with an overly-high opinion of itself.

  • Why not TheOS, AnOS, OS/4, ... ;)

  • The inherent security of OpenBSD is due to the rigorous scrutiny and auditing of the OpenBSD base install. Sprinkling in 'magic dust' in the form of components from the OpenBSD system accomplishes nothing of this. So basically, a hype mention, pimping off of OpenBSD's proven record. Not very impressive.

  • Dedicated hardware (Score:3)

    by butchersong ( 1222796 ) on Friday September 02, 2016 @09:42AM (#52814915)
    What might really help with adoption of PC-BSD or TrueOS would be a small hardware manufacturer taking a similar approach to Apple and selling hardware that 100% works and is supported for the OS. I'd love to run a BSD OS again but I do most everything on a laptop and I need good battery life and suspend / resume to work without constant fiddling.
    Hell it wouldn't take much to surpass Linux usability if you focused on a few models. Even running Linux I had to map custom keys to xrandr scripts to get brightness control working on my current laptop.

  • So BSD nomenclature is now in line with Apple's new OS type naming.

  • No mention of "TrueBSD" at the PC-BSD website [pcbsd.org]. (Except for the blurb about the sever OS.)

    Is this a fork, a re-spin, or just a simple rename?

    • (Meh, I meant "No mention of "TrueOS"... ". I need to get some sleep.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fnj ( 64210 )

      It's a nascent rename. My guess is the renaming will be complete when FreeBSD 11.0 is fully released.

    • Also looked and thought it quite weird. Looked further, no mention in the PC-BSD forums either.

      Okay, finally found something. Here on the Blog (http://blog.pcbsd.org)

  • Do they have a Warrant Canary (https://canarywatch.org/) and if so where is it or why not?

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