BSD Update: OpenBSD Saved, PC-BSD 10.0 is Coming, and FreeBSD 10.0 is Released
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-01-21 10:19:46 UTC
- Modified: 2014-01-21 10:32:23 UTC
Summary: News about the world of BSD, led by a generous donation to OpenBSD and a major new release of FreeBSD
OpenBSD
-
OpenBSD is important because it’s widely used in firewalls, other edge servers, email, DNS and intrusion detection servers for its security. It’s also included in a number of popular third-party packages that include SQL Lite, BIND, Sendmail and the Lynx web browser. €®
-
OpenBSD supports a wide range of hardware architectures, and for practical and logistical reasons there are few places in the world that have them all in one place except OpenBSD headquarters, see eg this picture, which shows a subset of the machines involved in building OpenBSD releases.
PC-BSD
-
PC-BSD 10.0 RC3 for this week pulls in the latest upstream FreeBSD 10 changes. As noted in their weekly digest is also improved detection of AMD Hybrid Graphics systems. With the FreeBSD/PC-BSD open-source graphics drivers being ported from the Linux kernel, their hybrid (dual) GPU graphics support isn't any better than Linux, and these improvements is just better detection if trying to load the X Server off the first GPU fails. Improved NVIDIA Hybrid/Optimus support for PC-BSD/FreeBSD support still needs to be investigated.
FreeBSD
-
FreeBSD 10.0 uses Clang as the default compiler in place of GCC, TRIM support is available for SSDs with ZFS as are other ZFS file-system improvements, AMD Radeon KMS driver support, and a wide-range of packages have been updated. I have already written at length about the best FreeBSD 10 features and other interesting features so check out the dozens of FreeBSD 10.0 articles on Phoronix for more information.
-
The problem has been corrected within FreeBSD HEAD, which is aligned for FreeBSD 11-CURRENT. The problem was fixed by writing a new VT console driver (the "Newcons" project). However, this won't benefit users of FreeBSD 10.0 and can only hope that it will be back-ported to a FreeBSD 10.x point release rather than waiting some years for FreeBSD 11.0.
-
The third and final FreeBSD 10.0 release candidate is out ahead of the hopeful general availability in early January.
FreeBSD 10.0 didn't make it out this year as was originally planned with the first target release date being months ago. Fortunately, the release is progress with a day-after-Christmas update.
-
Advancing prudently but quietly within the Debian camp is the Debian GNU/kFreeBSD operating system that pairs Debian's GNU user-land with the FreeBSD kernel. For Debian 8.0 "Jessie" there are continued improvements on this spin that does away with the Linux kernel. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD Jessie/Sid currently defaults to the FreeBSD 9.2.0 kernel, but a FreeBSD 10.0 development kernel has already landed in Debian and is the focus of today's benchmarks.
-
Latest version of the OS brings in Clang/LLVM, Hyper-V support, ARM additions, and compatibility with the Raspberry Pi
-
What makes this monster server (code-named MEGACORE) interesting isn’t its scale (it’s a fairly common server we build) but rather its purpose. It was recently built by iXsystems for the FreeBSD Foundation, and will be used to test and push FreeBSD to its limits. The FreeBSD Foundation plans on making it available to FreeBSD’s developers and committers for the purposes of addressing SMP, memory, and general performance scalability. It will be the most powerful machine in the Project’s possession to date.
-
Support for secure boot will be available in the FreeBSD 10.1 release which is due to be made later this year, according to Marshall Kirk McKusick, a senior developer of the operating system.
McKusick told iTWire that work on FreeBSD's boot process had been making steady progress. "Implementing UEFI booting is the first step, and last year the (FreeBSD) Foundation sponsored (developer) Benno Rice with a small project to implement a working prototype," he said.
UEFI would be a
bad idea for FreeBSD if FreeBSD
wants to dodge back doors because of
BIOS/EFI-level exploits.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- The Register MS: Turnover Fell by Over a Million Pounds (About 20%) in One Year, Administrative Expenses Rose by Almost Half a Million Pounds, The Register MS Operates at a Loss
- This is not a (commercially) healthy publisher
- Freedom Is Not Free of Charge, Freedom Can be Very Expensive
- Being someone's "slave" is the "default" when no resistance exists
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXX - Swatting by Proxy
- Using imbeciles who lie to cops and then dox cops (and already have arrest record and court documents wherein they admit being stoned in front of the cops)
- Intel Craters at Taxpayers' Expense (Bailouts for Failing Companies Simple Don't Work)
- GOP, which did this, has lost many seats
- Mass Layoffs at IBM, Also Outsourcing to India
- What IBM does to itself it is doing to other entities as well
-
- IBM Compels Workers - Even at Red Hat - to Become "Retired-ish"
- Who needs RAs (layoffs, which have been rebranded as "buyouts" like pink slips are generous "gifts") when workers can have their butts kicked every day and WARN Act reporting thresholds are never approached?
- Links 06/11/2026: "XBox Is Closer Than Ever to Being Sold Off" and "BuzzFeed Stock in Free Fall"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 06/11/2026: Dao and Dreams
- Links for the day
- 20 Years of Techrights
- Celebrating 2 decades of abuses of power being watched (and looking back at key changes)
- Linux (and Linus Torvalds) Sleepwalking Into a Binance-Level Catastrophe With Slop 'Code'
- Someone should ask Linus Torvalds or his boss (Linux Foundation) if they deem slop, which nobody audits, trustworthy enough to add to every computer out there running the Linux kernel
- Vitaly Orlov Weaponises Deep Pockets to Leverage High Court of Justice in London for Censorship and Punishment of Critics
- reproduced in full for more exposure and to make censorship harder
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXXI - What I Told British Police About Lozza the Same Month Garrett Was Preparing His First Nastygram From 'Hired Guns' Brett Wilson LLP
- Lozza and Garrett
- Outsourcing at IBM
- Cheapening of the workforce is hardly a new problem
- Links 06/11/2026: Slop "Companies Race to Lock Down Oil Clients" and Salon Shuts Down
- Links for the day
- Our Third Decade
- Our anniversary is tonight at midnight
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 05, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, November 05, 2026
- During Strikes and Industrial Actions Lots of EPO Staff Organised Yesterday and Will Do the Same Next Week
- There really needs to be a genuine election, not a reappointment
- Gemini Links 06/11/2026: Hadestown and "Where Has the Electronics Shop Gone?"
- Links for the day
- Links 05/11/2026: Rule of Law Vanishing in Turkey, Joshua Wong Still Martyred by Chinese Regime
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 05/11/2026: Classical Music, Politics, and Seeed Studio
- Links for the day
- Like Almost Every Slopfarm, UbuntuBuzz Seems to Have Thrown in the Towel
- Linuxsecurity and Linuxiac (to some extent Linuxjournal) are still going, but for how much longer?
- EPO 'Midterm' Elections Should Oust the Dictator
- Tentatively a failure to secure another (unprecedented) reappointment before Christmas
- Secret IBM Layoffs and Increase in PIPs (Silent Layoffs)
- The media is failing to do its job
- Links 05/11/2026: "Voice is Underutilized" and How Data Centres Lost the Midterm Elections
- Links for the day
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXIX - Crime Numbers Regarding GGG (Americans) and Why Those Still Matter
- Time does not undo the actions
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXVIII - Telling the Police About the Defamatory Blog Where Posts Targeted My Wife and I (From Across the Atlantic Ocean)
- Two years ago we spoke to cops a lot
- The Register MS is Losing Money Again, Based on The Register MS
- Selling out didn't pay off for very long
- There Are No "Layoffs" Anymore, Layoffs Got Rebranded
- We're entering bizarre times when layoffs are said to be "down" (according to the regime that suffered a 'bloodbath' in the election) because companies quit using the term "layoffs"
- Gemini Links 05/11/2026: Rivers of London, Soul Cakes, STMicroelectronics, and Slop
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Has Just Published Fake Article With "AI" 84 Times in the Page Because It Was Paid to Do This!
- Astounding number of mentions of "AI" (84 in total)
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 04, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, November 04, 2026
- Links 04/11/2026: Slop Helps Break Laws and Scam Altman Pretends Chatbots Are Persons
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 04/11/2026: Abacus and Spare IT Equipment
- Links for the day
- Viet Nam and Thailand at High Adoption Levels of GNU/Linux, Other Nations Nearby Are No Exception
- Helen Chiang and her colleagues say it's a "clown show" at Microsoft
- Richard Stallman on What It's Like to be Threatened by Strangers With Software Patents
- We hope that some EPO insiders will take time to listen to this talk
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXVII - Tasteless, Tactless Time for "Virtue-Signalling" (When Your Actions Are Much Like the GOP's)
- Violence by cops isn't a "leftist" thing
- Stealth Layoffs at IBM (PIPs and Bailouts)
- string of reports or unverified hearsay
- United Arab Emirates: GNU/Linux at Over 8%
- According to statCounter
- As XBox Goes Out of Business Helen Chiang Adds Insult to Injury
- XBox sales are worst in 25 years
- Steven Vaughan-Nichols is Slop
- Just look at this
- The Register MS is "Hosting a Dinner" for Sponsors
- Remember that The Register MS keeps publishing spam about "AI"
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXVI - A Potent Microsoft Threat to Administration of Justice Globally (Not Just Fair Elections)
- Breaking into machines to cover up one's own crimes
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXV - When One Does Not Understand Security (Nor Ever Pursues Security)
- One might therefore conclude that Garrett is a proponent of American back doors
- Links 04/11/2026: "Democratic Establishment" Wins Big and "Pentagon Sued Over Hegseth’s New “Future of Warfare” Committee Led by Musk"
- Links for the day
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXIV - Women as Hostages, Even Spouses
- First he put his own spouse behind bars by accusing the spouse of what he himself seems guilty of
- A Geminispace Tally
- That's not the Web, it is an alternative to it
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXIII - Shooting the Messenger is a Presidential Tactic
- why our ministers are looking for ways to fix the law.
- Andy's Latest Writings About Proton CEO Andy Yen, "JavaScript Required", and Slavery in Technology
- Andy (of The Cyber Show) has some new material
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXII - Malfunctions Reported in Windows Voting Machines (as Usual)
- "There are always problems," Ryan told us
- Gemini Links 04/11/2026: GoAccess, Adopting Gopher, and Twisty Passages
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 03, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, November 03, 2026
- "The Judge Accepted That Mrs Schestowitz Had Been the Subject of a Vicious Campaign of Online Harassment"
- That's consistent with how they men treat women