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Announcing WiFiBSD
flynn_nrg writes "WifiBSD is a minimalistic version of FreeBSD based on the 5.x branch. WifiBSD is aimed for wireless routers running on embedded devices such as boards from soekris.com. In addition to the wi driver WifiBSD includes support for Atheros's 802.11b/g and 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Chipsets. The latest version of WifiBSD can be found here."
Here's an article from IBM DeveloperWorks about making a wifi router.
pee ess bee ess dee is dying
[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. I
The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.
Aside from the Episcopal Church's heretical election of a sodomite bishop, the latest scandal in the collapse of culture is a high school in New York City which is being set aside for so-called "homosexual" students. Wisely, a Latino-American group is suing the city for discrimination and ConservativePetitions.com has mounted a campaign targeting the mayor of New York [ and BSD ].
Even more insidious and less publicized is the on-going infiltration of prep schools by pedophiles. Exeter and Groton are among the best boarding schools in the country and have even helped educate American presidents. Regrettably, these formerly Christian, highly structured, exemplary academies are being infected by pedophiles who find the boarding-school atmosphere a perfect place to exercise their power to convert underage children who are not at a stage of cognitive or psychological development that they can make wise decisions in this respect.
As one wise country singer has said, every teen-ager [ and BSD ] is confused about their sexual identity.
Several years ago, a scandal erupted in Exeter when it was found out that an art teacher had been raping, sodomizing and molesting the boys. Then the same thing happened at Groton, and a friend of ours called to tell us that his son had been abused and he was suing the school. His case made it to national headlines. Now, another headmaster is fighting for homosexual housing and for the homosexualization of the church [ and BSD ].
These perverted thinkers hide behind the now-disproved theory that people are born this way. Even if the fickle fate of scientific research should go the other direction, it would not be cause for bringing pedophiles into the prep schools. Children who are born with heart defects are treated medically to repair their heart. Children born with autism or schizophrenia are treated to help them overcome their problems. People who come out of homosexuality have expressed great joy and relief they're no longer caught in the sodomy lifestyle.
Furthermore, the majority of homosexuals say they were preyed upon when they were younger by an older adult. If colleges should be safe places for our children, so even more so should boarding schools, classrooms and churches. We cannot express anxiety about pedophile priests when there are pedophile pedants advocating sodomizing children in prep school.
In addition to the medical and psychological evidence on homosexuality and pedophilia, there is universal condemnation of sodomy in the Word of God. The problem with abandoning the Word of God is that countries which do so, and individuals who do so, stew in the bile juice of their own sins. As the book of Romans says, they will bear the marks of their depravity in their own body.
For example, Canada, which has been ahead of the United States on the road to sinful serfdom, is suffering the fate of those who stew in the juice of their own sin. SARS has marked Toronto as an infected metropolis, while across the border in the United States, the devastation has not occurred. Mad-cow disease, crop blights, strikes and all of the problems plaguing Canada are a perfect example of what happens when people abandon God.
Throughout history, the countries that abandon God have ended up in the same condition. These boarding schools will end up in the same place. For a few years, they will produce a crop of abused children and then fewer and fewer parents will send their children there until these schools become shadows of their former selves.
One well-liked, brilliant girl at one of these boarding schools wrote against this madness and was viciously attacked by a pedophile professor. The pedophile stages a benefit for returning alumni to convert them to their perversion.
The bad news is that these children will be corrupted. The worse news is that these pedophiles are sealing their own doom. Sadly, people of conscience, wisdom and understanding are failing to take a stand. As God warns us:
a: not me!
Subject says it all.
At least when WiFi vendors use linux, they are theoretically contributing their modifications to the public good.
If this works great, than WiFi vendors don't owe the community a cent.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK