“The FreeBSD project has hundreds of active developers spread all over the world, and many of them have their own parts of the source-tree that they work on. However, there are always a lot of new interesting projects and ideas that needs to be investigated and evaluated, and this is where the FreeBSD project relies on heroic efforts from volunteers. The following list of possible projects is in no way complete, but it should serve as a nice starting point for volunteers who would like to become committers in the future.”
All these projects are really-advanced. If someone with that level of skill was willing to work on a project like this they’d have already contacted one of the many OSS OSes. Best of luck to them but I don’t see anything happening from this expect for maybe a good list of needed features.
Does FreeBSD support HAL yet?
Hello Mr. Troll,
If you were right, then FreeBSD wouldn’t gain any new developers, and no volunteers would send any new patches to the PR database.
However, the truth is that FreeBSD has a steady stream of new developers joining the project, and there are a lot of new patches posted to the PR database every day, so you, Mr Troll, are wrong.
Hi,
Well, we (FreeBSD) are open for new projects and ideas, from documentation to source code, from web design to new logo’s. We are not only aiming at sources to be improved, documentation needs to be maintained as well, there are improvements possible in the ports infrastructure, web infrastructure, the mailinglists.. all kind of things can be done. That the current list only shows “advanced” topics is because no one submitted something else yet.. so please feel free to drop your idea’s to the freebsd project members.
Cheers,
Remko Lodder
FreeBSD Doc and Secteam member.
Any casual reader of OSNews realizes that there are a lot of people posting here with reasonable writing skills, possibly in non-English languages, and a relatively good understanding of various free software projects, that sit back and wait for “someone else” to continue to work on the projects.
Software development is certainly not the only type of work that free software projects need help with. They also need good documentation, infrastructure, web development, translation, and other work. Some of the items on this list are documentation-related tasks, and I’m sure there’s much more. For example, the FreeBSD Handbook is getting a bit out of date, and should probably be split into 4.x, 5.x, and 6.x versions.
I’m also sure that there’s quite a few OSNews readers with some amount of familiarity with C/C++ programming, Perl, Python, shell scripting, etc. who think that they aren’t experienced enough or smart enough to take a look at the code, learn a little bit, and try to fix bugs or implement simple features. The developers are obviously special geniouses with lofty credentials and no patience for mere mortals. No, they’re normal people, and many projects are small/simple enough for aspiring hackers to cut their teeth on.
I’m not saying that everyone can implement a filesystem or fix bugs in OpenOffice, but most OSNews readers have at least enough understanding and interest to contribute in some way, at their own level.
I hope there are skilled developers that will join and support these projects. Currently majority of open-source users and developers aren’t even aware of the fact that there are other great open-source operating systems except Linux and that they can contribute to their development. FreeBSDis excellent OS with great community, I wish them luck in getting the needed human resources to advance.
captainpinko is right, these are some fairly advanced projects that require detailed knowledge of FreeBSD’s internals. I don’t think he was trolling at all.
captainpinko is right, these are some fairly advanced projects that require detailed knowledge of FreeBSD’s internals. I don’t think he was trolling at all.
He was probably not trolling, but what he says is still wrong.
By going public with this list, people with the skill and knowledge needed can see that “hey, they need help with this after all…” rather than “they probably don’t need more help with these things.”
Why is it that everyone in the world is using the new FreeBSD logo except the operating system’s own site, freebsd.org?
If anyone knows where to find an SVG version of the logo (as promised in the logo’s press release) please chime in. Thanks.
Why is it that everyone in the world is using the new FreeBSD logo except the operating system’s own site, freebsd.org?
I have said it and will all ways will say it.. It’s this.. FreeBSD has got the power to run off and leave the other OS’s in the dust. But it’s the GUI install that people are spooked of. Now if this FreeBSD would make it EZ’er for people like me and others to install then you would see one OS standing out like a sore thum.
I know if this would take place I would right now install FreeBSD on every one of my box’s.. And NOT! think more than one time in doing so.
Thats wot I m waiting on.
Use DesktopBSD or PCBSD. You have the power of FreeBSD and anybody can install it with ease. Both have been designed for people like you. Give it a try please.
It’s not just the installer that has kept the masses away from FreeBSD (it isn’t really too much more demanding than, say, Ubuntu’s installer, just a wee bit uglier aesthetically). Coming from a strong Linux background, it just seems old-fashioned… sometimes in a charming, rustic, unobtrusive way, but other times a little aggravating.
I like the way it seems more traditional, a system designed to leverage the standard UNIX paradigms, rather than a system designed to abstract them. Other than possibly pkg_add, etc., there aren’t really any tools that I would classify as “FreeBSD specific,” although FreeBSD is certainly unique in many ways. There isn’t much to FreeBSD besides UNIX and the way they arranged it.
Working in tcsh drove me so nuts I just had to install bash. The console is weird: shift-pageup/dn doesn’t scroll (need to use scroll lock), the default prompt is useless, the typomatic rate is way too slow, and I hate the damn system beep. There’s no proc filesystem unless you mount linprocfs. I installed the minimal package set, yet I had countless initscripts in /etc/rc.d, more than I’ve amassed on my Gentoo machine after 3.5 years. Sendmail was running by default! The easiest way to download the kernel source tree is using cvs, and it doesn’t include the program needed to configure the kernel. There’s no frontend for configuring the kernel. The default kernel doesn’t support sound devices. The bootloader is a joke compared to lilo, or even Windows NT.
IMHO FreeBSD is very good technically, in many ways superior and in some ways inferior to, let’s say, Debian. However, FreeBSD is approximately 2-3 years behind Linux in usability. But, because of the nature of today’s free software climate, and the first FreeBSD-based desktop distibutions as early evidence, it shouldn’t take more than 1-2 years for FreeBSD-based distributions to catch up to Linux distributions in usability and even hardware support.
You’re too Linux centric, free your mind a bit
We just do it different way around in certain parts.
shift-pageup/dn doesn’t scroll (need to use scroll lock)
I love the scroll lock functionality! What else is scroll lock good for on your modern PC, anyway? Looks like a good use for a key.
There’s no proc filesystem unless you mount linprocfs.
False; there is a native procfs. But, you absolutely don’t need /proc for daily work, never. Paradigm shift compared to Linux.
yet I had countless initscripts in /etc/rc.d
Well you got the system startup scripts there! Nothing related to packages. FreeBSD splits into “system” and “third-party packages”. That’s a feature. Paradigm shift compared to Linux, hey?
Sendmail was running by default!
Sure it was! So you get your cron mail delivered. Cool, no?
it doesn’t include the program needed to configure the kernel.
Surely you can use vi? No scroll-twenty-screens-of-options application needed! Kernel config is plain easy text file. Paradigm shift compared to Linux, isn’t it?
The bootloader is a joke compared to lilo, or even Windows NT.
The bootloader do everything it should do, and it fits into ordinary MBR sector (400 bytes)! Can lilo do that? Paradigm shift compared to Linux, isn’t it sweet?
The default kernel doesn’t support sound devices.
Yeah, you hit me on that, this is true.
The default kernel of FreeBSD 6.0 supports sound devices. I had no trouble at all with the GENERIC, right now I am listening to Mary J. Blige while writing this 🙂 So, this argument fails also..
“”The default kernel doesn’t support sound devices.”
Yes it does! Kernel modules for sound are installed by default.
*BSD are on my list of things to check out. Right after learning Portugese
.
Anyway, the problem with coming from Linux is not the paradigm shift itself, but not knowing the reason for the given differences.
Recently, on a different web, I asked about the disk slices and naming network interfaces after the driver. All I could get from the people was “tradition”. “It was done like this since the beginning.” That is a bit sad, because I expected technical explanations, not emotional ones.
Have you ever tried to install FreeBSD? In what way is sysinstall more difficult to use than any other GUI installer? Please elaborate from _your own experience_! Oh, and don’t come with the usual slices vs. partitions excuse, because you can have them set up automatically. You can even LEARN about the install process if your are willing to read the GREAT FreeBSD Handbook.
I find it really irritating that people talk about things they really don’t know anything about!… :/
Nice to read your comment Remko. I just was going to say that it’s very easy to contribute, even if people can’t write/read C code asif it were English, but your explanation says it all..
Now if this FreeBSD would make it EZ’er for people like me and others to install then you would see one OS standing out like a sore thum.
I know if this would take place I would right now install FreeBSD on every one of my box’s.. And NOT! think more than one time in doing so.Thats wot I m waiting on.
Why do you think the FreeBSD people want you to install FreeBSD? Take it or leave it, if you desire/need a graphical install FreeBSD is not for you. 😉
Sorry, but I don’t share your opinion and a lot of other FreeBSD-people likely too. There is a reason for the SoC-project from Andrew integrating the BSDInstaller from DragonFly into FreeBSD.
Everybody should be able to use BSD (no matter which one) with ease. Please think again and look at Mac OS X for example.
You may not need such an installer personally beacuse you are skilled but that’s what BSD is about: Freedom of choice.
Regards, Daniel
Everybody should be able to use BSD (no matter which one) with ease. Please think again and look at Mac OS X for example.
I totally disagree on this. I think there are already too much people who are providing services without really knowing what they are doing.
This is why 80% of all mail worldwide is SPAM. If you don’t want to become skilled, computers are not for you.
Probably a lot of people, FreeBSD developers as well, disagree with my opinion. So be it.
These projects don’t seem to be advanced most of the requirements were mostly be able to understand the C language and know about filesystems. alot of these subjects are being taught in college. Any good computer science student should be able to handle many of these projects.
FreeBSD does in fact support sound, you’ve just got to load a kernel module first.
If loading a module is too difficult (hey, if you’re a newbie, you may well not know where to look to find out how to do it), then by all means, stick with another OS that sets that up for you.
Support for HAL in FreeBSD would be great!
what a cute nick name
Recently, on a different web, I asked about the disk slices and naming network interfaces after the driver. All I could get from the people was “tradition”. “It was done like this since the beginning.” That is a bit sad, because I expected technical explanations, not emotional ones.
So did you ever read http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ ?