KernelTrap reports: “Bruce A. Mah announced today the availability of FreeBSD 4.7 [story] Release Candidate 1. The final release is scheduled for just a week and a half away, on October 1’st. The release notes for FreeBSD 4.7 include quite a few improvements to PPP, updates to the ‘ahc’ and ‘ahd’ Adaptec SCSI device drivers, and several ATA fixes. Packages that have been updated included IPFilter (v3.4.29), Sendmail (v8.12.6) and XFree86 (4.2.1). Read on for Bruce’s full announcement.“
FreeBSD 4.7-RC1 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Now if only they would finish libh
Some cool info about FreeBSD:
1) According to the FreeBSD NVIDIA driver project, NVIDIA will be coming out with 3D drivers for FreeBSD
Go NV!
2) The SMPng project is moving right along. Status can be found here: http://www.freebsd.org/smp/ Apparaently, the 5.0 kernel will be fully preemptive, just like Linux 2.6.
3) The 5.0 kernel will have attributes and ACLs. Pure coolness.
I wish DRI was better supported in FreeBSD; from what I understand, you have to use linux DRI binaries for most if not all of the DRI cards supported in Linux.
I want to get my ATI Radeon mobility working with FreeBSD (it is in a Sony Vaio U1). Once I get that, sound, and APM working, I’ll be set.
I was originally going to use Linux, but I can’t get any version of Linux to boot on the Sony Vaio U1. FreeBSD can, and though I have little experience with it, I know it at least has that going for it.
Looks like that SMPng will be very cool (and very preemptive).
DRI is very well support under FreeBSD, particularly for the Radeons. The support is on the exact same level as under Linux.
Now, if you want to run linux GL apps, you will also need to install the linux-dri (I believe that’s its name) port. But if you want to run native FreeBSD 3D binaries (tuxkart, tuxracer, etc), you don’t need any linux DRI binaries.
Adam
I’d really like to see a good article explaining the differences between Linux and the three BSDs. Nature and goals of the projects, especially. Some technology if possible.
You mean, something like this?
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=580
If you click the FreeBSD icon in this story, you will find 2-3 more similar articles we have published since last year.
Indeed. Thanks, Eugenia!
I promise to click around some more. And even use Google from time to time.
What’s the latest and greatest news on an official, authentic Java port for BSD? There’s all of the hoopla at the beginning of the year, but not much news since, and the http://www.freebsd.org/java page doesn’t say much either.
Anyone have any more news regarding this?
Well, it’s not ported by Sun itself, but the OpenBSD porters of Java have got JDK 1.2.2 running natively and are working on getting the bugs ironed out of the newer versions (as well as licencing issues), IIRC. There’s a bit of news in the openbsd-ports mailing list (late August, 2002).
“You mean, something like this?
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=580
If you click the FreeBSD icon in this story, you will find 2-3 more similar articles we have published since last year.”
Could you have pointed him towards a more biased and opinionated article?
An article that states that EVERYTHING FreeBsd does is better than linux is NOT the type of article you point someone to if they are interested in either linux or bsd.
So let’s summarize that “comparison”.
1) Linux is fragmented unlike FreeBSD.
2) Linux package management stinks and doesn’t work.
3) Linux has terrible file system organization.
4) FreeBSD has the best partition system.
5) FreeBSD used “tested” code while linux is “flashy”
6) Linux installs are bloated.
7) Linux was a fad of the dot-com boom.
In otherwords lame FreeBSD propaganda. I’m surprised you would even let something like that on your site considering it’s written on the “FreeBSD is l33t” maturity level.
Please in future try to at least appear to have some sort of objectivity. You’ve just left that person with the impression that linux sucks and Freebsd God. As someone who uses both I can say they are both great and I’m sad to see the days of blind zealotry are not over. Pathetic.
True, however, I still prefer Matrox Graphics Cards. Hopefully they will come out with a driver for their new wizz-bang Parphillia. Personally, I would love to upgrade to something like a dual Xeon + ASUS Motherboard with a Serverworks Chipset + Parphillia w/ 256MB + FreeBSD 5.0 😉
Well. I have commented news postings before, and since Eugenia reacted to some of them, she probably knows that I’m using Linux for several weeks now and I that already know a bit or two about what works very well and what doesn’t work so well compared to what I used before: Windows. And don’t forget, the article is called “Migrating from Linux to FreeBSD”. I have read and considered that.
Regarding, Linux “vs.” FreeBSD. As far as I understand it now, FreeBSD is a complete Unix-like OS distribution relying on its own kernel and many own systems. That certainly does have its advantages – just as the Linux world has its strengths. I believe (guess, rather) FreeBSD benefits a lot from the activity surrounding Linux, especially on the desktop side of things. On the other hand, when you look at what Red Hat is doing recently, they’re working on a more integrated Linux-based product, too.
As long as the *developers* have the necessary professionalism to respect each others work and opinions, I don’t see why those models/projects/philosophies can’t co-exist peacefully. And I certainly don’t see why users should fight against each other – the right OS for the right needs.
Also, another difference, people see *BSD as a more “pure UNIX” as it is the second part of the puzzle, and SYSV (AT&T UNIX) being the first, which BSD was originally derived from.
FreeBSD needs the GNU and GPL more than it realises. If it weren’t for the GNU/FSF, there would be bugger-all applications for *BSD. No Emacs, no GNOME or KDE or any of the other nifty things. Hardly anything is licensed under BSD. Most applications I have come across tends to be LGPL then GPL, and in some cases, dual licensd.
Anyway, I am waiting for a usability review of the FreeBSD 4.7 installation and configuration Eugenia, are you going to do one 😉
Here’s another article that I found pretty informative and addresses some of the stuff you want to know –
http://www.lemis.com/bsdpaper.html
Hope it helps.
Alistair, indeed it does! Great article. Much information about how the projects are organized. Well worth a bookmark. Thanks. 🙂
Geezus man,
That was actually a pretty well written aritcle that compared the two fairly and with explicit examples. The author even pointed out several advantages of linux over freeBSD, such as better driver support, and new features, quicker.
It’s alright, just log off the internet for a few minutes, take a deep breath, and tell yourself that everything will be okay.
Well, I’m a borderline FreeBSD zealot, so I just had to respond to this:
2) Linux package management stinks and doesn’t work.
Heh, no way. FreeBSD’s package management is complete crap compared to most package managers for Linux. This will all be fixed with libh, but until then…
“but the OpenBSD porters of Java have got JDK 1.2.2 running natively ”
There was an effort for a native FreeBSD version of JDK 1.3.1 that started earlier this year.
Now that JDK 1.4.1 is out, they are really falling far behind.
I like FreeSD, I just wish I could run a modern native port of the JDK on my machine, then I’d punt Linux. But due to the delays in a native JDK, I keep (Slackware) Linux installed on my server for Java/JSP development.
It’s too bad that Sun doesn’t give FreeBSD the same level of support that Linux, Windows, and Solaris get with regards to the JDK.
Unix Fan, from your 7 points, the only ones I found that were unfounded are 4 and 6.
The article wasn’t about “l33t bsd propaganda” as you put it, it was about helping people move to BSD (hence the title “Migration Guide”). Do you have any idea how few resources there are for people wanting to move from Liunux or Windows to a BSD? It’s even worse for Open!
Quit hating.
A correction to a previous poster. BSD is not derived from SYSV. The BSD code forked around UNIX V6, which was MANY years before. SysV was actually an attempt to take some of the nice features of BSD UNIX and make a unified UNIX. As for being more UNIX-like, that’s a little unfocused. {Free/Open/Net}BSD is like UNIX in the sense that BSD is a branch of UNIX. However, that branch forked a long time ago, and most modern UNIXes (Solaris, SCO, IRIX) are actually derived from SysV, which is quite different. Linux, in general, tends to be more like SysV UNIX, though it takes a pragmatic approach and adopts whatever features are deemed worthy.