EditorsAbout the SiteComes vs. MicrosoftUsing This Web SiteSite ArchivesCredibility IndexOOXMLOpenDocumentPatentsNovellNews DigestSite NewsRSS

12.05.15

Vista 10 is ‘Swiss Cheese’ With Critical Bugs, More Microsoft Layoffs (HoloLens) Announced. So Why Did OpenBSD Accept Microsoft’s $1,000,000 Bribe?

Posted in BSD, Security, Vista 10, Windows at 7:17 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

New evidence of Microsoft’s advocacy of back doors and of dangers to SSH security

Back door

Summary: Concerns about OpenSSH and its acceptance of Microsoft (after relatively huge payments), which not only facilitates back door access (with secret code) but is already descending into oblivion anyway

MICROSOFT’S business, as we pointed out this morning, is in a sorry state. The common carrier, Vista 10, is widely rejected, so Microsoft is now trying to force people to download and install it. This is a new kind of aggression from Microsoft. It forcibly gives people software that they don’t ask for and explicitly reject.

“One has to be seriously misinformed to actually believe that effective disk encryption is possible in Windows. There are back doors and it’s intentional.”There are permanent back doors in Vista 10, as leaks about Microsoft’s special relationship with the NSA serve to highlight. The British technology press calls Vista 10 “spyware-as-a-service” and points out that drive encryption in it is permanently broken. One article shows that security not a priority at all in Vista 10 and another states that “Microsoft can be pretty secretive about its spyware-as-a-service Windows 10, but Redmond has now taken its furtiveness to a whole new level.” The clever headline says “Microsoft encrypts explanation of borked Windows 10 encryption”. Well, Microsoft doesn’t make drive encryption that actually works. There are back doors in it, as we explained last year and earlier this year. There are even bits of material related to this in leaks-oriented sites such as Cryptome. One has to be seriously misinformed to actually believe that effective disk encryption is possible in Windows. There are back doors and it’s intentional. We know this, at the very least, based on Edward Snowden’s leaks. The FBI does not even publicly complain about encryption in Microsoft’s products; that’s because the FBI already has a door into everything from Microsoft. Remember CIPAV?

“To make matters insanely dangerous, OpenSSHL “will also have Redmond’s proprietary cryptology interfaces rather than standard open-source implementations of the Secure Sockets Layer” (in other words, compromise of security is almost guaranteed).”To make matters worse, Microsoft is now trying to bring this whole crazy mentality into FOSS projects like OpenSSH (hence into BSD, Linux, Solaris, and so on) — a move which we criticised here before (even quite recently). OpenSSH, according to this article, is getting closer to NIST (the NSA’a back doors facilitator, which recommended ciphers with back doors in them). To make matters insanely dangerous, OpenSSHL “will also have Redmond’s proprietary cryptology interfaces rather than standard open-source implementations of the Secure Sockets Layer” (in other words, compromise of security is almost guaranteed).

“Microsoft needs them more than they need Microsoft, but Microsoft handed them a nice bribe in order to do this (we covered this earlier this year).”What are NIST and Microsoft doing anywhere near SSH? Both of them are proponents and facilitators of back doors? IETF is there too. We already wrote a great deal about its malice over the years. What are OpenSSH developers getting into here? Microsoft needs them more than they need Microsoft, but Microsoft handed them a nice bribe in order to do this (we covered this earlier this year).

Microsoft itself continues to collapse. The people who made Vista 10 marketing gimmicks are being laid off right now. More Microsoft layoffs are being reported this month. Just notice the trend. It is an ever-shrinking company trying to reinvent itself and find a new identity, with a new logo and new CEO, led by Bill Gates (the real boss who amasses all the money, hoarding more and more of it while pretending to run a ‘charity’ in order to get tax breaks, like Mark Zuckerberg).

We are saddened to see the OpenSSH community opening its door (maybe its back door) to a dying company which they neither need nor can trust.

“In doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

10.22.15

Microsoft is Already at ‘Extend’ Phase in E.E.E. Against Free/Libre Software, Security at Jeopardy

Posted in BSD, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Patents, Security, Servers, Standard at 7:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“What we are trying to do is use our server control to do new protocols and lock out Sun and Oracle specifically”

Bill Gates

Manchester studies

Summary: Microsoft’s war against POSIX/UNIX/Linux APIs culminates with the .NET push and the ‘bastardisation’ of OpenSSH, a Swiss army knife in BSD/UNIX and GNU/Linux secure channels

MICROSOFT will not rest until it regains its once dominant position in computing. It’s not just because of pressure from shareholders but also because of clevery-marketed sociopaths, such as Bill Gates, who are back at the helm and are very thirsty for power.

Microsoft is now pushing .NET into GNU/Linux, having failed to do so with Mono and Xamarin because regular people (end users) and sometimes developers pushed back. How can Microsoft still convince people to embrace the Microsoft APIs (which are heavily patented and not secure)? Openwashing and propaganda.

Jordan Novet, who writes a lot of pro-Microsoft or marketing pieces for Microsoft (for many months now), is formerly a writer of Gigaom, which had received money from Microsoft to embed Microsoft marketing inside articles (without disclosure, i.e. corrupted journalism). Now he acts as a courier of Microsoft marketing, repeating a delusion which we spent a lot of time debunking here (.NET is NOT “Open Source” [1, 2, 3]). To quote Novet:

Microsoft today announced the beginning of a new bug bounty to pay researchers to find security holes in some of the tech giant’s recently open-sourced web development tools.

“How can Microsoft still convince people to embrace the Microsoft APIs (which are heavily patented and not secure)? Openwashing and propaganda.”When Microsoft alludedwto “Open Source” in relation to .NET it sometimes merely piggybacks the reputation of projects it exploits. See the article “Microsoft’s .NET Team Continues Making Progress On An LLVM Compiler” (not GPL). To quote Phoronix: “Earlier this year Microsoft announced an LLVM-based .NET compiler was entering development, LLILC. Six months later, LLILC continues making progress.

“The .NET team has published a six month retrospective of LLILC. It’s a very lengthy read for those interested in low-level compiler details.”

“Microsoft is still working on implementing support for Windows’ crypto APIs rather than OpenSSL/LibreSSL and to address POSIX compatibility concerns along with other issues.”
      –Michael Larabel, Phoronix
This is a potential example of the infamous “embrace, extend, extinguish” approach. As we have shown here before, platform discrimination remains and it is even being extended to existing Free software projects, such as OpenSSH, as we explained yesterday (expect Windows-only ‘features’ and antifeatures). Microsoft APIs are already being phased in — the “extend” phase in E.E.E. (embrace, extend, extinguish). We warned about this months ago [1, 2] and we are now proven right. Even Michael Larabel noticed this and wrote: “Microsoft is still working on implementing support for Windows’ crypto APIs rather than OpenSSL/LibreSSL and to address POSIX compatibility concerns along with other issues.”

So now we have Windows- and Microsoft-specific code right there inside OpenSSH, in spite of Microsoft support of back doors for the NSA et al. Does this inspire much confidence? Repelling Microsoft isn’t about intolerance but about self defence.

“I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense — I deserve it.”

Be’s CEO Jean-Louis Gassée

10.21.15

Microsoft’s Insecure-by-Design (Sometimes With Back Doors) ‘Contributions’ to OpenSSH

Posted in BSD, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 7:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Making a mockery out of the spirit of OpenBSD, having given money to OpenBSD

Manchester church
Vulnerability (need for money) found in the Church of BSD

Summary: Microsoft is seemingly disrupting the high standards of the OpenSSH project (and by extension OpenBSD and Free/libre software), as its focus on security is ludicrous at best

LAST week, in our daily links, over a dozen links were included about a new revelations of flaws in a hugely popular encryption method. A paper presented by award-winning academics demonstrated a serious weakness. OpenSSH was among the alleged targets, potentially allowing spies to infiltrate, intercept and decrypt communications/data relayed over SSH. The philosophy and principles (UNIX) of OpenSSH had kept it strong for a very long time.

“Knowing the role that social engineering plays in weakening encryption, the last thing one needs right now is PRISM pioneer (first company) and a back doors proponent like Microsoft inside the OpenSSH community.”Those who keep abreast of privacy news (including NSA leaks) will know that there is an aggressive effort to crack SSH. Some ciphers were recently phased out or deprecated as a result. Knowing the role that social engineering plays in weakening encryption, the last thing one needs right now is PRISM pioneer (first company) and a back doors proponent like Microsoft inside the OpenSSH community. As we pointed out earlier this year, OpenSSH is being subjected to E.E.E. (embrace, extend, extinguish) treatment from Microsoft [1, 2] because money talks. Microsoft has a lot of money (despite losses in the billions) and OpenBSD is underfunded, hence desperate for money.

Secure channels and Microsoft Windows are incompatible concepts. It cannot be done because Windows itself has back doors, allowing penetration at root (Administrator) level. Microsoft is now pushing its back-doored, insecure-by-design APIs into the SSH project and also puts people’s keys on boxes with such inherent insecurities. How terrible a recipe is that? Is OpenBSD willing to compromise its credibility and reputation just because Microsoft gave it a ‘generous’ payment (some would call it a bribe)?

According to this update from Microsoft, they now intend to:

Leverage Windows crypto api’s instead of OpenSSL/LibreSSL and run as Windows Service…

People in the comments (not deleted, at least not yet) rightly post complaints. One said: “I don’t think I like that your replacing an open source SSL with a closed source Windows crypto api.”

Another commenter said: “Do I see a trap here?! If the Windows port uses the closed source crypto api is the whole OpenSource OpenSSH-idea then still intact?”

“Microsoft takes something that’s not its own and then ‘bastardises’ it, making it an inferior ‘Windows thing’ which spreads only because of the network effect or illegal bundling.”iophk told us: “How much key code can they replace with dodgy homebrew and still be allowed to use the same name? Without the crypto, it is not the same software and merely a derivative.”

Well, that’s just how E.E.E. has historically worked. Microsoft takes something that’s not its own and then ‘bastardises’ it, making it an inferior ‘Windows thing’ which spreads only because of the network effect or illegal bundling.

iophk has also pointed out to us that Roger A. Grimes, who works for Microsoft and IDG (news publisher) at the same time (clearly a conflict of interests), presents a false dichotomy, “freedom or security” (right there in the headline). Computer security is never the goal at Microsoft; they want back doors for so-called ‘national security’ (i.e. state power with remote access to citizens’ PCs).

“The first rule of zero-days is no one talks about zero-days,” reads this new headline (remember that Microsoft wilfully enables NSA access through zero-days).

“If Microsoft cannot honour Free software and respect the APIs of OpenBSD, OpenSSH, OpenSSL etc. then maybe it’s time to tell Microsoft to take back its ‘bribe’ money and go away, leaving OpenSSH alone (and secure).”Microsoft’s E.E.E. tactics are becoming a big threat not just to GNU/Linux but also to BSD and Free software as a whole. Microsoft now tries to become a GNU/Linux host, despite its known record of scanning every single file (claiming to do so because of child pornography) and colluding with the government for warrantless access to data stored on servers.

The E.E.E. against GNU/Linux is perhaps best demonstrated by this new article about how Microsoft tries to take over Big Data (a lot of data, sometimes incredibly sensitive) on GNU/Linux servers. “Last month Microsoft did something extraordinary,” says the author, “something which demonstrates how completely the company has changed since its third CEO, Satya Nadella, took over.”

Satya Nadella just turned the company into more of a surveillance company, as Vista 10 serves to remind us. He continues to attack GNU/Linux in many ways (including patent extortion) while saying that Microsoft "loves Linux' (a lie as big as a lie can get).

If Microsoft cannot honour Free software and respect the APIs of OpenBSD, OpenSSH, OpenSSL etc. then maybe it’s time to tell Microsoft to take back its ‘bribe’ money and go away, leaving OpenSSH alone (and secure). Almost every distribution of GNU/Linux comes with OpenSSH. Microsoft is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and it has no room inside FOSS until it quits attacking FOSS and collaborating with abusive espionage agencies like GCHQ and the NSA.

07.10.15

Microsoft ​Cyanogen Hires ‘Former’ Microsoft Chief Technology Officer (of Google Competitor)

Posted in BSD, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft at 6:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

MS-CM
Image credit: Linux Veda

Summary: ​Cyanogen continues to expose itself for what it really is and who it is serving, owing to staff background

MICROSOFT took over not only Nokia, inciting it to attack Android (Nokia now attacks Android using patents) but also Cyanogen, the company whose agenda seems to now closely align with Microsoft’s. Many of its employees are based near Microsoft, but that’s not too shocking. It puts the NSA’s leading partner (Microsoft) right at the centre of AOSP whilst smearing Google, which developed AOSP and gave it away as Free software. We previously covered this in posts such as:

Microsoft’s proxy ​Cyanogen has just hired Microsoft’s Lawler, based on this article. What a surprise? Not! To quote CBS ZDNet: “Formerly Lawler was also chief technology officer of Microsoft’s Bing Maps…”

Microsoft’s strategy against Android has become utterly ugly as it includes patent extortion. Some of the media tries to nevertheless characterise Microsoft as a friend of Free software. The latest example is Windows (proprietary) promotion by payments to OpenBSD — a move that is criticised by FOSS Force, which says: “Of course, it isn’t revealed how much, in code, Microsoft is going to contribute going forward, but as long as the money is there…I guess the money is there.”

Microsoft keeps trying to use its money to disrupt Free software projects. It did this in 2006 with Novell (a GNU/Linux actor at the time) and it is still doing that with other companies or nonprofit entities. Cyanogen is one of these and OpenBSD hopefully has the moral strength to bite the new hand that feeds.

07.09.15

The Real Reason Microsoft Gives Money to OpenBSD is Not Security or Free Software But Proprietary Windows With Back Doors

Posted in BSD, Microsoft, Security at 12:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

OpenSSH
Image from the OpenSSH project

Summary: Exploring the real motivations and the real implications of Microsoft giving money to the OpenBSD Foundation

MICROSOFT is in pain. The company sees its monopoly diminished due to software becoming a commodity and platforms such as BSD and GNU/Linux taking over everything, not just the back end. Microsoft can attempt to cope with this the way it typically copes with competition (including Android as of late): Embrace, Extend, Extinguish [1, 2, 3, 4].

The other day we wrote about yet another example of openwashing from Microsoft (assimilation strategy). Microsoft booster Darryl K. Taft is the latest to call a Windows-only .NET pile of Microsoft APIs “open source” and it leads us to Microsoft’s effort to characterise its involvement in OpenSSH [1, 2] as something benign or even good.

“So it’s about putting secure Free software on an insecure proprietary software platform (with back doors), in order to promote its use.”Based on an OpenBSD Foundation announcement [1] and some press coverage [2] that says Microsoft “handed a pile of money to the OpenBSD Foundation”, we are becoming a little concerned, knowing Microsoft’s history in such circumstances (creating unnecessary financial dependencies). This story is growing feet now, even in some Linux sites, so it is hard to ignore the risk of Microsoft using BSD as a front against GNU/Linux and copyleft, as it did in past years. Prudently one can say that if things are as indicated, this won’t be the first time Microsoft uses BSD as anti-Linux front.

As Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols put it (implicitly) a couple of hours ago, it’s about “help in porting OpenSSH to Windows.”

Windows is known for gaping holes (see the latest in [3]), i.e. the very opposite of OpenBSD. For these two entities to work together (NSA resistor and the NSA’s number one partner) is to have an incompatible relationship. Nothing on top of Windows can be secured and as we pointed out in our past articles about this, SSH keys will be put at risk. Microsoft’s ‘help’ to OpenBSD reminds us of Microsoft’s ‘help’ to Novell, where the goal was to use Novell to promote Windows, even inside Linux (e.g. Hyper-V).

It’s not a payment intended to help OpenSSH development. Microsoft looks to get its money’s worth (shareholders’ money). So it’s about putting secure Free software on an insecure proprietary software platform (with back doors), in order to promote and increase its use.

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. Microsoft Now OpenBSD Foundation Gold Contributor

    The OpenBSD Foundation is happy to announce that Microsoft has made a significant financial donation to the Foundation. This donation is in recognition of the role of the Foundation in supporting the OpenSSH project. This donation makes Microsoft the first Gold level contributor in the OpenBSD Foundation’s 2015 fundraising campaign.

  2. Microsoft rains cash on OpenBSD Foundation, becomes top 2015 donor

    Microsoft has handed a pile of money to the OpenBSD Foundation, becoming its first-ever Gold level contributor in the process.

  3. Bundestag Hack: Possible Backgrounds and Defense Methods

    Here at Univention, we are of course also concerned by the attack on the German parliament’s IT infrastructure, better known as the “Bundestag hack”. To recap: It appears that there were some bogus e-mails there including links to malware. A number of the Windows PCs in the Bundestag’s “Parlakom” network were or may still be infected with the malware, which is alleged to have searched for and copied certain confidential Word documents. According to a report in the Tagesspiegel (German) newspaper, this allowed the hackers to gain “administration rights for the infrastructure”. The attack was conducted as an “advanced persistent threat” or “APT attack” for short: in other words, a complex, multi-phase attack on the German parliament’s “Parlakom” IT network.

02.21.14

Good Advocacy by the Linux Foundation Stresses the Jobs Effect, But Should Mention GNU Also

Posted in BSD, GNU/Linux, Kernel at 6:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Skills involving BSD, GNU, and other toolsets deserve coverage (at least by name) in the context of Free/Open Source software

THERE was recently a lot of coverage about jobs in Free/Open Source software (FOSS) and days or weeks later the Linux Foundation weighed in with its press release [1] about a study it had funded to frame this as a “Linux” boom. The Linux Foundation is run and managed by branding experts like Zemlin (they don't always do branding right) and marketing people, so this should not be shocking. The only problem is, they rewrite history to make it look as though only Linux counts (the big lie which gives the Linux Foundation power at the expense of camps like GNU/FSF). I am not an opponent of the Linux Foundation; I am a big fan of Linux, but I also care about accuracy and truth in reporting — something which the marketing community is unable, by definition, to care about.

Looking at the sort of headlines generated by the Linux Foundation’s latest marketing drive (e.g. 2-8]), it’s all about “Linux” but not about the rest of the stack (FOSS). The Linux Foundation is not the only entity which does this by the way. But what they call “Linux skills” often means command-line skills and basically familiarity with GNU utilities, not Linux (the kernel does not have many utilities of interest). Some tools, like OpenSSH, are from BSD. If we mislead the public by collectively referring to all those small programs as “Linux”, then we not only do a disservice to other projects but we also reinforce the philosophy of Linux, which does not stress or insist so much on freedom.

To give example of better actions from the Linux Foundation (as of late), it shared a story about a Pennsylvania high school adopting GNU/Linux and it generated some good headlines [9]. Its marketing staff issued a somewhat provocative, stereotypes-reinforcing (connoting Linux with scarce social/love life) Valentine’s post [10], not to mention today’s Facebook promotion [11] (people have openly complained about the Linux Foundation’s support for surveillance like Facebook for years). On the other hand, the Linux Foundation sets up new conferences that are named only after the kernel [12] (even when the conferences cover things beyond it [13]), which is another matter worth mentioning.

Ultimately, it would be fair to stress, not only the Linux Foundation calls/labels “Linux” a much broader system, exploiting a common misunderstanding/misconception. The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) too is doing that [14]. It often teaches GNU, but students are led to believe that it’s all “Linux”. We can do better than that.

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. 2014 Linux Jobs Report: Demand for Linux Expertise Drives Hiring Priorities
  2. Hiring managers desperately hunt for Linux talent: Report

    With hiring managers beefing up their plans to bring aboard talent with Linux skills over the next six months, a bright future awaits those professionals who know Linux.

    Tech recruitment firm Dice and The Linux Foundation have released the 2014 edition of the Linux Jobs Report. The two found that the growing demand for Linux talent is “driving salaries for Linux above industry norms.”

  3. gNewSense Reviewed, Thanking Packagers, and Linux Jobs
  4. Linux skills helping professional move forward – 2014 Linux Jobs Report
  5. Keep Learning Linux—It’s The Future
  6. Linux professionals are in high demand in technology job market

    Today in Open Source: Download the free 2014 Linux Jobs Report.

  7. Demand for Linux Professionals is Growing
  8. Demand for Linux skills rises
  9. Pennsylvania high school adopts Linux, rolls out laptops to students

    Penn Manor High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania will embrace the open source Linux platform, installing it on more than 1,700 laptops. Every student at Penn Manor HS received an Acer TravelMate laptop powered by the Ubuntu 13.10 OS – and the student body was encouraged to explore the OS and push its limits.

  10. What Does Your Linux Candy Heart Say?

    How does the penguin community celebrate February 14 every year? Is it with a box of chocolates? Maybe if it’s sitting next to our keyboards alongside multiple coffee mugs. What about little Necco Sweethearts? Those “luv you” messages seem a little too general to fully express the amorous thoughts of those with Linux already seeded deep in their hearts.

  11. Leaked: Linux’s Look Back Facebook Video

    After trying to conceal its Facebook posts from the world for nearly a decade, Linux’s Look Back Facebook video leaked today.

  12. Linux Foundation Announces Schedule for Annual Collaboration Summit
  13. Dive into the world of Linux and free software at SCALE 12x this weekend in Los Angeles
  14. Linux certifications closer to Kosovo

    The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the world’s premier Linux certification organisation, announced that Master Affiliate for the Western Balkans Region LPI-Greece recently appointed CACTTUS as LPI Sub-Affiliate for Kosovo, a company which has a strong experience in the market of Kosovo in technology and trainings.

01.24.14

PC-BSD 10.0 is Coming Shortly

Posted in BSD at 7:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: BSD on the desktop is about to hit an important milestone

According to the PC-BSD Web site [1], PC-BSD 10.0 is coming soon, following the rescue of OpenBSD ($100,000 in cash [2], based on other coverage [3,4]) and the release of FreeBSD 10.0, which is now receiving good coverage from decent sources [5,6,7].

PC-BSD is an important project because it makes desktops that are based on BSD (with KDE) easy to set up, use, and customise. The other BSDs mostly target server users.

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. PC-BSD 10.0-RC5 Now Available

    This will likely be our LAST RC before issuing the 10.0-FINAL release in a week or so. Please report any outstanding issues to our bug database.

  2. WHEW! OpenBSD won’t CloseBSD (for now) after $100,000 cash windfall
  3. Bitcoin Baron Keeps a Secretive Open Source OS Alive

    Recently, Theo de Raadt and the other engineers who oversee the OpenBSD operating system were hit with a $20,000 bill for the electricity that feeds the computers on which they test this venerable piece of software. fter they revealed that the bill could bring the project down, Mircea Popescu, the Romanian who runs the online bitcoin exchange MPEx, stepped in to save them.

  4. OpenBSD Seeks Cash to Save Open Source Server OS

    How much are free, open source operating systems worth? The outcome of the financial crisis currently besetting OpenBSD, an open source OS that is particularly important in servers and embedded devices, could provide a clue, as the OpenBSD Foundation seeks $20,000 to pay overdue electricity bills.

  5. Open Source FreeBSD 10 Takes on Virtualization
  6. FreeBSD 10.0 Final Released
  7. FreeBSD 10.0 lands, targets VMs and laptops

01.21.14

BSD Update: OpenBSD Saved, PC-BSD 10.0 is Coming, and FreeBSD 10.0 is Released

Posted in BSD at 5:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: News about the world of BSD, led by a generous donation to OpenBSD and a major new release of FreeBSD

OpenBSD

PC-BSD

  • PC-BSD 10.0 RC3 Improves Hybrid Graphics Support

    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-RELEASE Announcement
  • FreeBSD 10.0 Has Finally Been Released

    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 10 Best Features Of FreeBSD 10.0
  • FreeBSD 10, Kali Nuclear Option, and Why Linux Lost?
  • KMS Drivers Break The Console In FreeBSD 10

    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.

  • FreeBSD 10.0 RC3 Is Here To End Out 2013

    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.

  • FreeBSD 10.0 Kernel Comes To Debian

    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.

  • FreeBSD 10.0 RC2 Brings Radeon KMS Fixes
  • Massively upgraded FreeBSD 10 to be released next week

    Latest version of the OS brings in Clang/LLVM, Hyper-V support, ARM additions, and compatibility with the Raspberry Pi

  • MEGACORE: FreeBSD Foundation and iXsystems collaborate to further the cause of FreeBSD Development

    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.

  • FreeBSD to support secure boot by mid-year

    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.

« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »

RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channels: Come and chat with us in real time

New to This Site? Here Are Some Introductory Resources

No

Mono

ODF

Samba logo






We support

End software patents

GPLv3

GNU project

BLAG

EFF bloggers

Comcast is Blocktastic? SavetheInternet.com



Recent Posts