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FreeBSD 4.9-RC4 (i386) Available For Pounding
Dan writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Murray Stokely has announced the availability of RC4 - the final Release Candidate for FreeBSD 4.9. He says that RC4 includes SATA, DRM and other bugfixes; he is requesting everyone for help with testing. He says that if all goes well, they will be able to release Monday."
Currently run 5.1 on all my machines, but 4.x series was marvelous as well.
With DragonflyBSD rolling its release sometime around 5-STABLE branch I think people will have a hard time making a choice of what to run.
5-STABLE branch releases or DragonflyBSD, it will be interesting times ahead.
I will probably run FreeBSD on most my servers and put DragonflyBSD on my laptop, as 4.x series worked better on crappy hardware; I needed more advanced features that 5.x offered that DragonflyBSD will too.
FreeBSD 4.9-RC4 (i386) Available For Pounding
I issued a similar press release shortly after breaking up with my girlfriend!
PS: FreeBSD rulez!
I only wish I had a machine that I could use for testing purposes. As it stands I am only able to install releases on this one.
That said, I am even more excited for the upcoming stable version of 5.x
... 'cos I just installed Panther on my Mac, and it was making noises about FreeBSD *5*.
Long live the *BSDs!
I can tell already 4.9 is gonna be better than 4.8 was. I had a machine running 4.8 that would panic and reboot under heavy load (problem was apparently in the driver for the ethernet card). Since I really had nothing to lose, I decided to go up to the release canidate of whatever version was available.
...and it didn't work (and checksum mismatch, which might explain it just -slightly-).
This was friday morning, and the newest version of stable was RC3. I downloaded it,
I looked back at the server, and RC4 had been put on the server while I was downloading RC3. Okay! Download, and before too much time passed, 4.9-RC4 was running.
I pushed and pulled some large files off and on it (100 mbit, which in 4.8 it wasn't lasting longer than a few minutes on that card), and this time it stayed up (and it's still up).
I've been running it since Saturday, and so far so good. I had to download and install the ports separately because they weren't on the mirror yet, but that's no biggie.
;)
:-/
Everything seems to go well, the usual fit-n-finish is superb, no complaints or warnings from any packages or utilities. Just what you'd expect from the FreeBSD team
Of course, i have `boring' hardware- nothing special:
Athlon 1533Mhz
512M Kingston
30G WD IDE
nvidia TNT1 (eek!)
SbLive! (haven't built a kernel for support yet)
Netgear FA312TX (natsemi chipset)
IBM CDRW (haven't configged yet)
But hey.... I just may make FreeBSD my primary desktop OS instead of Debian
do() || do_not();
[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