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Upcoming FreeBSD 5.1 Release Schedule

Posted by michael on from the planning-ahead dept.

BSDForums writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering Team has posted the schedule for the Release of FreeBSD 5.1 late spring. FreeBSD-5 stable roadmap, announced earlier, outlines the future of FreeBSD-5 stable releases, specifically 5.1 and 5.2."

39 comments

  1. FreeBSD? I heard it was dead ... by zangdesign · · Score: 4, Funny

    Geez, how long has this story been up, and no one of any note has proclaimed FreeBSD dead?

    You guys are slacking off.

    Personally, I hope it never dies - I rather like it.

    --
    To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
    1. Re:FreeBSD? I heard it was dead ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Perhaps they're slacking off because they're beginning to realise that a few pathetic wankers who post the same rubbish repeatedly on the same website can't kill an open source project. Well, perhaps they don't realize how stupid they look. People with such a condition tend not to notice such things.

    2. Re:FreeBSD? I heard it was dead ... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Interesting
      No goatse.cx and tubgirl.com surely are alot more offensive and stir alot more people into a flamewar then the ancient bsd is deing.

      Infact to the contrary FreeBSD is growing. A couple of years ago BSD was unknown except by the slashdot crowd. Now after Linux quality is begining to go downhill that its getting more noticed. a 5x fold in applications definetly has strainged rpm and yes even apt-get. Depancy problems are still there.

      I tried FreeBSD in 99 and did not like it. It was weird and archiac and felt old. Today I love it. The ports are way cool and the bsd crowd ignored the Linux flashiness and focused on stability. Today it paid off and many ISP's in the New York area for example are switching to RedHat to FreeBSD because of the quality and out of box security.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    3. Re:FreeBSD? I heard it was dead ... by msh104 · · Score: 0

      It will be dead when everybody will stop using, supporting, or working on it. and that is very likely not going to happen for a long time since freeBSD is able to do a lot of everyday tasks very efficently. and there still enough people willing to use/maintain it.

    4. Re:FreeBSD? I heard it was dead ... by sean23007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hey hey, my my
      BSD can never die
      There's more to the picture
      Than meets the eye.
      Hey hey, my my.

      Out of the red
      and into the black
      You pay for this,
      but they give you that
      And once you're gone,
      you can't come back
      When you're out of the red
      and into the black.

      Linux is gone
      but he's not forgotten
      Is this the story
      of Johnny Rotten?
      It's better to burn out
      'cause rust never sleeps
      Linux is gone
      but he's not forgotten.

      Hey hey, my my
      BSD can never die
      There's more to the picture
      Than meets the eye.

      --Neil Young (almost)

      --

      Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
    5. Re:FreeBSD? I heard it was dead ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      A couple of years ago BSD was unknown except by the slashdot crowd.

      A couple years ago BSD was known to all but the Slashdot crowd, and most of the Slashdot crowd still was wearing braces.

    6. Re:FreeBSD? I heard it was dead ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FreeBSD is focused on stability? Their release engineering division is run by schizophrenics and their ports team considers branches the work of the Great Satan himself, resulting in b0rked final releases and critical ports every second week. Give Gentoo Linux a try.

  2. The TODO list... by drdink · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Since all 3 of the other comments on this story are offtopic or trolls, I'll throw in something somewhat informational about the upcoming FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE.

    First off, you can see the TODO list here. Stuff on this list is supposed to happen before release time.

    Also, remember that even though this is -RELEASE, it is not -STABLE. FreeBSD 5.1 will not be part of any stable branch. It is still considered the developmental version. Despite that, it is pretty stable. I haven't seen my machine crash in quite a while.

    --
    Beware, Nugget is watching... See?
    1. Re:The TODO list... by tenman · · Score: 1

      This is nothing more than the next release. There will always be things ont he to do list.

    2. Re:The TODO list... by Icy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just to make it clear about the -RELEASE -STABLE and -CURRENT branches.

      -RELEASE is the most stable of the three. Only major problems are fixed in this branch such as security issues. This branch really does not change much at all if at all. Of the three branches, this is the one you want to use for production machines.

      -STABLE is the 2nd most stable, even though it's name confuses people. It is the development branch between releases. After a release, the -STABLE branch is opened and new features are added and new bugs are fixed. This branch will become the next -RELEASE. The changes are usually very mild but there can be problems.

      -CURRENT is where all the development for the next _major_ version is done and it is the least stable. Major changes are made and it might not compile at all for extended periods. It also takes a bit more knowhow to get things working as the docs are not always up-to-date.

      With 5.X they have decided to not create a -STABLE branch so that from my guess they can still make major changes and not get as much complaining :). Major and minor changes are still being made, and it takes a bit more knowledge and understanding to work around a major change that you are unfamiliar with.

      Just my 2 cents.

    3. Re:The TODO list... by Piquan · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is close, and better than most descriptions I've seen, but there's a few things I'd like to clarify.

      -STABLE is not opened from the -RELEASE. On a major revision (eg, the 4.x series), the tree is developed-- usually with a release or two-- and then -STABLE is brought up to a stable release. That's why, at the moment, there are 5.x releases, but -STABLE is still on the 4.x series.

      At some point-- probably 5.2-- then -STABLE will be brought up to the 5.x tree, starting at (for example) 5.2.

      -RELEASE isn't really a development branch; it's a tag. However, each release does have its security patch branch, such as 4.7-RELENG.

    4. Re:The TODO list... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      5.x will become the -STABLE branch after the 4.9 release. 6.x will then be branched off as -CURRENT.

  3. Still no support for USB wireless devices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sigh .. and BSD is supposed to be good at USB and a good system to use for a WAP.

    "There's several drivers floating around" ... I'll believe that when I see someone import them into CVS. If it's so hard to write this driver how come Linux WLAN-NG drivers exist? ...e.g for prism2_usb :-(

    Gaak might as well spend 6 months learning how to write a WiFi-USB driver for BSD myself.

  4. Just great by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Informative
    Right after I downloaded and installed FreeBSD 4.8.

    FreeBSD 5 was way too flaky on my system.

    At least with the ports I can have the benefits of gcc 3.2.2 without if offically being supported. I just installed it a few hours ago and put a whole bunch of alias's in my /etc/csh.cshrc to point to the new gcc32. Symlinks scare because its hard to undo what you have done.

    Anyway I just did a whole make world in /usr/src and it compiled fine. Kde is alot faster compiled with true C++ prelinking.

    Just try doing something like this in Linux. Dependancy hell no more. Thank you BSD team.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re:Just great by MadAhab · · Score: 1

      I haven't had any complaints about 5 whatsoever, and a number of (very small) things that have long been problematic are suddenly better. Background filesystem checks are really nice, power management is better. And if you hate linux dependency hell, scrap the redhat and try out Gentoo. It's like the FreeBSD ports system on steriods. It's Linux with a concept of a base system. It's FreeBSD's ports with a better upgrade path. I haven't gotten far enough to see how well it really works in the longer run of upgrade cycles, though; some fdisk/grub problem is keeping the system from knowing how to boot itself (though I got FreeBSD installed in 10 minutes on the same system).

      --
      Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
    2. Re:Just great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I haven't tried it myself, but you could download the source tree for 5.x-CURRENT and rebuild world. It can be done.

    3. Re:Just great by Ragica · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Giddy with a shiny new computer a few weeks ago was happy to finally have an excuse to upgrade from 4.x to the glorious world of FreeBSD 5... but, alas, I also had big problems with 5.0-RELEASE.

      It's pretty bad with your system won't boot at all unless you (i'm amazed i found this info at all) tweak the kernel to turn off DMA on the hard drive during boot up).

      I had other problems as well. It seems just certain hardware causes problems. Others have no problems. My problems were so severe though, I heart brokenly was contemplating the descent back to the blessed safety of STABLE-land...

      But first I figured i'd give the latest snapshot build a chance... i snagged a small ISO and put it on an RW... installation went smoothly... and all my problems disappeared!

      I was hoping that 5.0 would be stable enough to install on a dev server, but my experience scared me significantly. Even though the snapshot I now have installed is running like a dream... still i'm too nervous about using this now on any non-home server.

      But, if the progress they've made between 5.0 and the snapshot i have is any indication of the rate of progress being made, maybe i'll give 5.1 a shot in a few more places... whilst still looking forward to a hopefully STABLE tagged 5.2.

    4. Re:Just great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See.. This is what I don't understand. You're talking about how FreeBSD is good, then say "Oh, but try Gentoo, even though mine stopped booting." Makes no sense. FreeBSD is still booting because it's not junk.

    5. Re:Just great by andrewski · · Score: 1

      I've installed 5-current on several machines and the only ones that have barfed are newer, but crappy generic p4's. Stay away from the SOYO DRAGON (I Think) and anything else too crappy.

    6. Re:Just great by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1
      The problems I had was my usb keyboard does not work with 5.0 and some ports were broken. Oddly my usb keyboard worked fine when plugged into an older system with 5.0.

      My main problem was the instant-workstation port. Its a highly recommended port for any desktop user. Its in /usr/src/ports/misc/instant-workstation. It installs gnome, kde, windowmaker, bash, cd-record, fonts galore, and a whole bunch of usefull desktop stuff.

      However it severly broke my system. Mainly the postfix package and it screwed up X. For some reason my nvidia module was not being recongized. My hunch is that it was the linux nvidia.o module and not bsd's that was replaced. It could not be restored.

      Anyway I gave up and install FreeBSD 4.8 back onto my system and the problems went away. All is good except for my usb keyboard which my new asus mother does not seem to like. Yes I flashed my bios to the latest version.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    7. Re:Just great by noackjr · · Score: 1

      Actually, I just set the following options in /etc/make.conf to use the port version:

      CC= gcc32
      CXX= g++32

      Not sure if I'm missing something, but it worked for me.

  5. Where is etc/defaults/make.conf on FreeBSD 5? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Without a master makefile like the the 4.x series I may not upgrade.

    For some reason this file was deleted in version 5. There is a /etc/make.conf but its only a few lines long and is made for perl. No information on gcc or master ftp sites to automatically download ports in this file. I also checked /usr/local/etc with no luck as well

    I searched the web and found no information on this. To me this is essential. I am posting here as a last resort.

    Maybe I did something wrong when I installed it and yes I did chose to install the ports with make, gcc, etc. A change like this had to be documented. /etc/defaults/make.conf is a big deal and no information was found at freebsd's website so I guess its a user error.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re:Where is etc/defaults/make.conf on FreeBSD 5? by shlong · · Score: 4, Informative

      Look in /usr/share/examples/etc/make.conf. It was moved there about a year ago. The reasoning was that it didn't actually contain defaults (like /etc/defaults/rc.conf does), but just usage examples.

      --
      Cat, the other, tastier white meat.
    2. Re:Where is etc/defaults/make.conf on FreeBSD 5? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Thanks.

      It does some like a weird place to put them because I and many others do edit make.conf to pick the fastest ftp sites and consider them default settings contary to whoever made the choice to use it. On a ports distro compiler optimizations and fastest sites is an essential and not just some example. But I guess the decsion was already made even though I think its a dumb one. Since you are a developer and have access to some of the mailing lists, you may want to mention to update the faq and the FreeBSD handbook online. It should of been in the RELEASE-NOTES under changes at least. No execuse for having the simplist things mentioned in it but forget about including make.conf. I searched everywhere and found nothing. I am doing the 5.0 install now and I am curious about other surprises I may encounter.

      Thanks again.

      Now off to configure the bash shell.....

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    3. Re:Where is etc/defaults/make.conf on FreeBSD 5? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      FYI:

      locate make.conf

    4. Re:Where is etc/defaults/make.conf on FreeBSD 5? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Try /usr/share/examples/etc/make.conf . And "man make.conf"

  6. Hey mods! by xeniten · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Why did the chicken cross the road?


    To get to the other side!


    Bwahahahahaa!


    Whats the matter? Didn't you think that was funny? Well why not? I mean you've been modding up BSD is dead jokes for years so you must think old moldy jokes are funny right? Grow the F up.
    It's high time this BSD is dead crap stopped. FreeBSD is living proof time only ages fine code like fine wine. BSD is dead jokes is nothing more than cheap ass trolling, don't reward it.

    --
    Romana: "How did you know?" Doctor Who: "Ah, well, knowing is easy. Everyone does THAT ad nauseum. I just sort of hope"
    1. Re:Hey mods! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      YHBT!

    2. Re:Hey mods! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It is official; Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying


      Speaking of pathetic wankers... Here he is. still pissed off that mom will not let him borrow the family station wagon...