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FreeBSD 4.1 Released
Dr. Banana writes "Jordan Hubbard announced that FreeBSD 4.1 is now available on ftp.freebsd.org.
You can read the release notes here.
The ISO will be available on August 1."
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I just got done upgrading a couple of servers to 4.0-stable, now 4.1 is out!
I wish they would not release anything for atleast 60 days after I buy it/install it/upgrade it!
I should have majored in Art, where nothing changes for atleast 20 years and the old stuff gets more valuable!
Linux O Muerte!
* FreeBSD 4.1 can now be installed on an IPv6-only network - this will be the first release of FreeBSD that never needs to operate using IPv4 at all! ftp7.jp.freebsd.org (Listed as Japan #7 in sysinstall) is an IPv6-reachable mirror site for installation and package-fetching
The revolution has begun! IPV6-->and you thought the internet was already big enough.
I need a TiVo for my car. Pause live traffic now.
I get lots of Free BSD's already with Windows.
Virtually none. BSD is Unix. To the end user, it may be difficult to tell that it's even a different OS. To the admin, there's obviously going to be a difference, simply because it's a whole other kernel and the system is wired differently. But really, I had a little Linux experience and a bit more experience as a Solaris user when I started using FreeBSD and it took me less than a day to set up a nat-ing firewall/gateway.
Again, cosmetic, really. For whatever may be new to you, the man system is VERY thorough. I've seen manpages that list under BUGS "This man page is too long". =)
Specifically is it source/binary compatible with linux.
Source? It's just as source compatible as another Unix. Meaning, if your code will compile on IRIX or Solaris too... then it's pretty much a given that it will compile under FreeBSD. There are quite a few hacked programs out there that somebody may have written that will run only on Linux - but do you really need that software in the first place? Plus there's always Ports. If there's a port for the app you want (and chances are there is) then it WILL compile. =)
If you can't get the source for some app to compile, then FreeBSD does have Linux binary-compatibility. I believe it can even be compiled into the kernel. To be honest, I've never used it... simply because I haven't needed to.
Does it have a similar "feel" to linux, how hard would it be to adapt to it?
It's Unix! You can run your favourite shell, XFree86 with KDE or Gnome and Enlightenment (or any other combo under the sun). ls is ls, xterm is xterm, etc...
How does the hardware support compare? Will it run on the "typical" PC?
It's been said that Linux tends to support more of the bleeding-edge than FreeBSD. I don't know how true this is. FreeBSD has kernel-level support for PnP, PCMCIA, USB and a whole slew of other stuff. There isn't a piece of hardware in my system that isn't supported fully in FreeBSD.
On the "typical" PC, you should absolutely NO problems.
Does it have any advantage (speed, stability, security or other)?
This is kind of a contentious issue. There was an article a few days ago about this very issue. FreeBSD outperformed Linux at some disk access benchmarks, I believe. I don't put much stock in those tests though. I think it's fair to say that performance is, at the least, on par with any of the Linux distros.
Stability and security always depend on the admin. There are some rock-solid Linux boxes out there and there are some that can barely stay up for 20 minutes.
It's not fair to say that FreeBSD is more stable or secure, because it all depends on what services you need and run.
I just want to know if it's worth playing with.
IMHO, it is. You'll be pleasantly surprised. I installed FreeBSD 3.4-release on a whim when my Redhat installer failed on an old 486. I haven't gone back since. =)
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