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FreeBSD 4.6.2 Released
MobyTurbo writes: "FreeBSD 4.6.2 has been released. It primarily cures a few security problems in the 4.6 release. If you are impatient it will be available at various mirrors, or upgrade your existing FreeBSD installation via cvsup, or support the FreeBSD project by purchasing it at a vendor that supports the FreeBSD project."
I'm been cvsuping all along and it has not given me any problem yet.
Netcraft is reporting that BSD has returned from the grave as a spawn, and was last seen pursuing a Vole last seen in the northwestern US.
I remember about 4.6 being announced ten times or
so, and a reply from a developer to only post
announcements when they are pgp-signed from a
freebse developer.
nah, all not my stuff - we release on
December 1th
June 1th
of every year, and a bit earlier this year.
There is nothing to interpretate...
Yep, I'm a happy OpenBSD sysadmin and user.
My Karma isn't excellent, damn it! (And
It is official -- Netcraft is now confirming: *BSD is dying
One more crippling bombshell crushed the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last [samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin [amdest.com] to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
support the FreeBSD project by purchasing it at a vendor that supports the FreeBSD project.
Other vendors include DaemonNews/BSDMall, and Hinner EDV.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
..meanwhile, I'm downloading netbsd.
Given that this is only a (very) minor point release, I don't expect I'm missing too terribly much.
I just heard the sad news on talk radio. Troubled OS FreeBSD was found dead in it's downtown office this evening. There were no further details. Even if you were a linux homosexual you will agree that this is a tragic loss for the OS dilletante-dabbler troll hobbyist community worldwide. I miss it already :(
What ever happened to the Sun certified native JDK for FreeBSD??? I know about http://www.freebsd.org/java/, but where is native j2se1.4 for freebsd??? All the announcements sounded like January was the magic moment???
Is supposed to come out in 6 weeks. What will be interesting is to find out when 5.0 will actually be ready. I'm certain they will blow past their stated release date of Nov. 20. It could easily slip to feb. 2003 or beyond. Apparently it is very difficult to make new releases on time when you are a dying OS.
The 4.6.1 release was announced as the next release, but it never happened. Why? If it is that much a PR blunder to admit that something went wrong, why still increase the version number?
I used FreeBSD 4.6 ... moved to Gentoo Linux because of
the excellent Portage system.
I like FreeBSD, I think it is a very nice OS but I am happy with Gentoo on the desktop.
FreeBSD is nice though, you can't go wrong with it unless you need:
SMP
Java
Linux threading seems to be better now
Looking forward to see what FreeBSD 5.0 has to offer.
I do not like NetBSD nearly as much as FreeBSD let alone Gentoo but not a bad OS otherwise, with good IPV6 support.
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It's when you get distracted by the politickers that they sideline you. The tireless work that you perform keeping the system clean and building is what provides the platform for the obsessives and the prima donnas to have their moments in the sun. In the end, we need you all; in order to go forwards we must first avoid going backwards.
To the paranoid conspiracy theorists - yes, I work for Apple too. No, my resignation wasn't on Steve's direct orders, or in any way related to work I'm doing, may do, may not do, or indeed what was in the tea I had at lunchtime today. It's about real problems that the project faces, real problems that the project has brought upon itself. You can't escape them by inventing excuses about outside influence, the problem stems from within.
To the politically obsessed - give it a break, if you can. No, the project isn't a lemonade stand anymore, but it's not a world-spanning corporate juggernaut either and some of the more grandiose visions going around are in need of a solid dose of reality. Keep it simple, stupid.
To the grandstanders, the prima donnas, and anyone that thinks that they can hold the project to ransom for their own agenda - give it a break, if you can. When the current core were elected, we took a conscious stand against vigorous sanctions, and some of you have exploited that. A new core is going to have to decide whether to repeat this mistake or get tough. I hope they learn from our errors.
Future
I started work on FreeBSD because it was fun. If I'm going to continue, it has to be fun again. There are things I still feel obligated to do, and with any luck I'll find the time to meet those obligations.
However I don't feel an obligation to get involved in the political mess the project is in right now. I tried, I burnt out. I don't feel that my efforts were worthwhile. So I won't be standing for election, I won't be shouting from the sidelines, and I probably won't vote in the next round of ballots.
You could say I'm packing up my toys. I'm not going home just yet, but I'm not going to play unless you can work out how to make the project somewhere fun to be again.
= Mike
--
It smells like something died.
Okay, it's time to put on my newbie hat, so flame away.
I'm testing out my first real FreeBSD installation on a colocated server, and I'm using the ports tree for installing just about everything. I'd like to be able to keep on top of the latest security releases and pretty much make sure I stay in line with all the -RELEASE releases. The problem is, I have no idea how to do this. It seems like most examples I see for using cvsup are for -STABLE or -CURRENT. There doesn't seem to be a nice guide for doing so on the FreeBSD site or on my system.
Will the example ports-supfile, as-is, do the trick? Or should I use a different supfile?
Does anyone have any pointers or advice?
Why only 2 CDs? Is it just an "upgrade CD"? 4.6 was 5 CDs.
Imagine a Beowolf Cluster of THESE!!!
And people wonder why OpenBSD is shunned. The users are as bad as the authors.
Someone start de Raadtdot and get these k1dd13s out of here.
Help! I'm dying and I can't get up!
Given the over year delay in the 2.4 Linux kernel (as controlled by one man, Linus) and the horrible fragmentation of Linux (over 180+ forks) the OS in trouble is GNULinux. Its great that UNIX software that runs on *Linux runs on FreeBSD, so as the shining star that is linux implodes into a black hole, the people on BSD won't be crushed.
Sun coun't get out of its own way to save its own sorry ass.
When Java 'runs everywhere' then I'll care about java.
Here's a good question for all you FreeBSD guru's, semi-guru's, and people smarter than I. I installed my current FreeBSD machine with FreeBSD 4.4 a year or two ago, and have been cvsup'ing and make buildworld'ing to keep -stable. When I did the installation, I chose to install XFree86 3.3.6, and so it does not show up in /var/db/pkg. Now I want to remove 3.3.6 from the system and install XFree86 4.2.0 from ports. Finally for the question....
/var/db/pkg?
How can I remove XFree86 3.3.6 from FreeBSD 4.2.6 since there is no entry in
rm -rf /usr/X11R6 /etc/X11
As the prevoius answer stated, remove /usr/X11R6 and /etc/X11 and /etc/XF86Config.
/usr/X11. I just tested this (will give you a few unimportant errors), but YMMV:
/bin/sh or bash) /var/db/pkg /usr/X11R6' $i/+CONTENTS; then echo $i;fi;done > ${HOME}/packagelist
/usr/ports/x11/XFree86-4, and reinstall the ports/packages you need.
But be sure to also remove all ports that might have installed stuff under
(use some bourne shell, like
cd
for i in *; do if grep -q '^@cwd
Then remove those packages in ~/packagelist
After this, just install
HTH
thank you, perhaps this should be documented and added to either the faq or handbook too?
list the relative advantages and disadvantages of so called "microkernel" operating systems against ones based on a standard "monolithic" kernel. Your answers should include specific examples. Discuss issues of security, performance, ease of reengineering, etc.
make world takes so long on my k6, this is a kewl way to get those fixes quickly.
Where do you want to be, What are you doing to get there.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
The other 3 CDs contain optional packages and ports. You can use the ports tree installed off the install CD (disc-1) to download only the ports you need.
I have been able to reproduce on 3 different machines that an upgrade from 4.6 Stable to 4.6.2 causes the system to become unstable after doing the installworld, installworld dies, you are unable to do a mergemaster due to out of memory problems and I have ended up rebuilding all three of the boxes off of 4.6 stable.
Of course it's company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo... always use the indefinite article a d
It does not show up because it is a distribution, which is different from a package and different from a port, intuitive, huh?
/usr/X11R6 out of the way instead of removing it, just in case.
Get your source media, and do tar tzvf on the archives you installed (Xbin.tgz, Xcfg.tgz), and remove those files.
I usually move
chris@xanadu:~$ whatis /.
/.: nothing appropriate.
I understand that BSD is licensed quite differently than linux, but come on folks, aren't they just duplicating functionality? wouldn't it be better if they (the BSD developers) tried to help out linux with it's security???? both oses do similar things, why not let the linux guys worry about new features and let the BSD guys worry about the security for the linux kernel.
From what I hear though linux servers get hacked a lot, a properly managed firewall through iptables or ipfw will keep out 99% of the bad guys (I'm sure there will be some of you who say `well this is what BSD is for - the other 1%' and that is fine, but given enough time i'm sure that linux people will eventually get down to security and fix up their boxes just as well as BSD)
Also: does anyone here see a parallel between what happened 30 years ago and what is happening now, you started to have all these little little branches from the main [proprietary] system, but now there is a difference, linux is free and is licensed as such, why not have all the best people from all (OpenBSD, NETBSD, freeBSD, etc. etc.) help linux out w/ security. I mean linux is supported on many more platforms that the above BSDs and will continue to be so into the future.