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FreeBSD 5.2 RC2 Now Available

Dan writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Scott Long announces the availability of FreeBSD 5.2 RC2 which fixes a number of bugs, specifically the one in which users experienced system panics during install and dynamic library problems in the 'fixit' environment. Scott is asking everyone to test this release over the holidays. You can download it from one of your preferred mirror sites." Update: 12/24 23:01 GMT by T : Dan writes with more info: "Scott Long has also laid out a roadmap for future FreeBSD 5.3 releases now that FreeBSD 5.2-RC2 is getting close to release quality."

301 comments

  1. In mother russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Funny

    Kernels recompile you!

  2. I thought you were dead! nt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    FreeBSD should've died on Verona 3. Truly.

  3. Fish Post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Frosty toasty holiday posty!

    w00t to your mother, as AC Hammer might have said.

  4. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Hey who is the OSDN hottie in red? question mark question mark question mark

  5. OSDN Personals ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    A BSD download and personals ad doesn't mix ... or is it the work of a d(a)emon ?

    1. Re:OSDN Personals ? by moneymaker · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      dumb first post ... as usual

    2. Re:OSDN Personals ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Shhhh, you'll awaken the "16 year old in BSD daemon latex" troll with all his pictures of the only woman he's ever seen in his life besides his mom.

  6. FreeBSD's last Christmas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Outside this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild winter hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their once owner, FreeBSD.

    This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead FreeBSD. No longer will FreeBSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, FreeBSD lies cold and still. FreeBSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for FreeBSD, for FreeBSD is dead.

    Goodbye, FreeBSD. The pain of life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.

  7. Crossing my fingers by sameerdesai · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I have always loved open source projects.. this has a unique opportunity of researching on your own and learning what others have done on the research.. like simple scalar tool available on University of Texas austin that allows you to research on microprocessor design I consider this one is a nice research tool in OS. Crossing my fingers for this release.

    1. Re:Crossing my fingers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      It isn't only BSD which is headed for the morgue. Pop star Michael Jackson will kill himself within the next three years, if the legal case is as strong as it appears to be.

      He suffers severe Narcissistic Personality Disorder (an "I am above you stupid little laws" attitude), Body Dysmorphic Disorder ("I need another plastic surgery," that has rendered him without a nose) and (of course) Pedophilia.

      His money is gone. He is $200 million in debt. The case this time is strong against him, even worse if they have Pellicano tapes of witness intimidation and illegal wiretaps. He will never allow himself to go to prison.

      He will instead become increasingly psychotic. He will ultimately choose to go to that big "Neverland" in the sky, and reside with Chucky, the BSD monkey.

    2. Re:Crossing my fingers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
      Lights out, pard.

      Somewhere, in a lonely hospital room,

      *BSD is dying
  8. What bias! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    /. just cannot resist the chance to take a shot at FreeBSD over a kernel panic in the story, can it? One stability issue in FreeBSD in what, 5 years?

    Yet, the myriad of kernel panic issues in Linux go conveniently ignored. When is the last time you've seen a Linux kernel panic mentioned on the front page? Answer : You haven't. /. editors obviously have it in for all the *BSDs. The only reason there is a BSD forum at all is so the editors can take potshots at it and make Linux look better by comparison.

    1. Re:What bias! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      /. just cannot resist the chance to take a shot at FreeBSD over a kernel panic in the story, can it? One stability issue in FreeBSD in what, 5 years?

      Calm down. We are talking about the release candidate of a development branch. FreeBSD 5.x isn't stable yet. The first stable FreeBSD 5.x release will be 5.3. Nobody says that there are major problems with the stable branch of FreeBSD.

      Yet, the myriad of kernel panic issues in Linux go conveniently ignored.

      This is hardly on topic in a FreeBSD release announcement.

    2. Re:What bias! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Didn't you get the memo?? Slashdot is now an Apple fan site. Since OS X is related to BSD, in the fifth cousin twice removed sort of way, you would think there would be more BSD stories.

    3. Re:What bias! by Slipped_Disk · · Score: 1

      OK, I just need to ask how this is a "shot" at FreeBSD when the developers themselves acknowledged the bugs that are mentioned in the /. story - In fact the release anouncement for the new RC uses the exact same wording.

      Am I the ONLY fscking BSD user on slashdot without a persecution complex?

      --
      /~mikeg
  9. What gives? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    It's piece of shit. Dead meat. Tannenbaum already commented it is worth nothing. *BSD is a dead man walking.

  10. Pre-emptive troll Strike! by Noryungi · · Score: 0, Troll

    OK, this one goes out to all of you BSD trolls out there:

    It's dying!
    It's dying!
    It's dying!
    It's dying!

    There... feeling better, little trolls? I know you would! ;-)

    This being out of the way, kudos to all the FreeBSD developers for all the good work -- it's a nice Christmas present!

    --
    The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
    1. Re:Pre-emptive troll Strike! by Rinikusu · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      No, you silly man. It is NOT BSD that's dying. It's Santa Claus. Every year, millions of children around the Western world are discovering Santa Claus isn't real. :: sigh :: I don't have the energy to try and finish this one.. Anyone?

      --
      If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
    2. Re:Pre-emptive troll Strike! by ibku · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Indeed, the developers have done alot of hard work making FreeBSD an excellent OS. I've been using 5.x since it came out and have few complaints. Even for a developer release I've found 5.x to be rock solid, with high quality in mind, and quick time to fix any problems that do come up (mostly port maintainers keeping up with 4.x->5.x changes :)

    3. Re:Pre-emptive troll Strike! by rainman_bc · · Score: 1

      Now if only they could get the ports working in 5.2 so we can actually USE it....

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    4. Re:Pre-emptive troll Strike! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      FreeBSD's final Christmas

      Outside this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild winter hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their departed owner, FreeBSD.

      This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead FreeBSD. No longer will FreeBSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, FreeBSD lies cold and still. FreeBSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for FreeBSD, for FreeBSD is dead.

      Goodbye, FreeBSD. The pain of life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.

      " FreeBSD is dead . . . "

    5. Re:Pre-emptive troll Strike! by moderators_are_w*nke · · Score: 1

      Happy Christmas. (Posted using FreeBSD 5.2RC2) Mark

      --
      "XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, use more." - Anonymous Coward
    6. Re:Pre-emptive troll Strike! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


      Elegy For *BSD


      I am a *BSD user
      and I try hard to be brave
      That is a tall order
      *BSD's foot is in the grave.

      I tap at my toy keyboard
      and whistle a happy tune
      but keeping happy's so hard,
      *BSD died so soon.

      Each day I wake and softly sob
      Nightfall finds me crying
      Not only am I a zit faced slob
      but *BSD is dying.


    7. Re:Pre-emptive troll Strike! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      When your whole family dies in a horrible and bizarre way, I will laugh and sing.

  11. Status of FreeBSD 5... by NightSpots · · Score: 5, Informative
    For those who don't follow FreeBSD, here's the executive summary:

    • FreeBSD's most stable branch (-stable) is still 4. It's currently at 4.9. This is like the 2.4.x branch in Linux.
    • FreeBSD's development branch (-current) is at 5.2. All major changes go into this branch, although some (like hyperthreading) will be MFCed (merged from current) back into the 4 branch if they're important. This is like the 2.5.x branch in Linux.
    • Although it was planned for 5.2, it appears that the 5.3 branch will mark the transition to 5-stable. That is, the stable branch will be the 5 series, and the development branch will start working towards 6. This is the equivalent of the 2.6.x branch in Linux.


    That means that the next two releases on the 5 branch are going to be last times new features are added to the branch before -current forks, so it's going to require a lot of testing to ensure stability.

    Why do you care?

    Well, if you don't ever plan on using FreeBSD, you don't. If you do use FreeBSD, tossing this release on your hardware and making sure things like ACPI function with your motherboard are really important as NOW is the time to fix them so that they can be tuned and maintained prior to the 5.3 Release when the code is marked stable.

    The major changes in FreeBSD 5 are significant. There's new locking throughout the tree, which should improve SMP performance everywhere. There's also finer grained locking in the Network stacks (thanks Sam), better ACPI (thanks John), support for AMD64 (coming slowly, thanks Peter), and the GEOM disk abstraction layer (nice work PHK), which has already been shown to be useful for things like GEOM-gate (a la nbd in Linux), is getting more mature with every release.

    Performance and stability ... well, there's a reason people use FreeBSD, and it's not because it has a pretty installer.
    1. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by PatJensen · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Thanks for the good update and rundown. I was hoping to see some more work done on Newcard (the new Cardbus/PCMCIA engine in FBSD 5) I've had a huge amount of difficulties deploying FreeBSD 4.9 and 5.1 on recent and older laptops alike.

      I recently deployed 5.1 on a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4208XDVD and an older IBM Thinkpad 600X. Neither of them correctly probed my Cardbus controllers without specifying the size of allocated memory to the controller. I also had difficulty once the controllers came up, in that none of my wireless cards would work. (Orinoco Gold, MS Wireless Broadband Adapter)

      Has anyone else had Newcard difficulties with the FBSD 5 release train? I've read of quite a few workarounds to get Cardbus working correctly. I have yet to recompile a new kernel removing Newcard - is it worth it altogether?

      Merry Christmas Slashdot!

      -Pat

    2. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eurgh, Toshiba CardBus hardware. Eurgh, Toshiba ToPIC CardBus controller. Eurgh, eurgh, eurgh.

      Sorry I think I'm going to be sick..

    3. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Don't believe their hype - BSD's development model has significantly impaired its progress. Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.

    4. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by RLiegh · · Score: -1, Troll

      in 5.0, 5.1 and 5.2, I am unable to use my usb keyboard after boot up, as the operating system seems to not recognize it.

      This is not a problem in the 4.x series.

      Do you lot intend on fixing and/or restoring that?

    5. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you posted a message to any of the appropriate mailing lists asking (1) if anything changed, or (2) if anyone can help you get it working.

      It's likely that it works, but you have to make some subtle change somewhere.

    6. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
      FreeBSD status report:
      It's dead, Jim.
    7. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      It really comes as no suprise that *BSD was soundly defeated in yet another benchmark. Everyone knows that ever hapless *BSD is hoplessly mired in a mortifying tangle of fatal trouble. It is perhaps anybody's guess as to which *BSD is the worst off of an admittedly suffering *BSD community.

      The numbers continue to decline for *BSD but FreeBSD may be hurting the most. Look at the numbers. The erosion of user base for FreeBSD continues in a head spinning downward spiral.

      Consider that because of the many 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 marketing surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are infinitesimally dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among hobbyist dilettante dabblers. In truth, for all practical purposes *BSD is already dead. It is a dead man walking.

    8. Re:Status of FreeBSD 5... by xYoni69x · · Score: 1
      "How can the Have-Nots have a win when the have's have F-16s and M-16s, and the have-nots have not?"
      --Dr. Seuss
      I spent the last hour or so trying to find which Dr. Seuss book/publication this quote is from, but couldn't find anything. Where is it from?
      --
      void*x=(*((void*(*)())&(x=(void*)0xfdeb58)))();
  12. TOO MANY CHIEFS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Ever heard of the saying - TOO MANY CHIEFS? That's what Freebsd project is all about. It has too many stupid motherfuckers who think they are some sort of CHIEFS!!! They mess up the whole project!!!!

  13. A developer's lament: What Killed FreeBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    The End of FreeBSD

    [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

  14. FreeBSD CORRUPTED MY HARD DISK! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    FreeBSD corrupted my HD!! That was the last thing!!!!! Never gonna touch that piece of shit again!!!! Stick with OSs that work.

    1. Re:FreeBSD CORRUPTED MY HARD DISK! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      BSD you grow in the ghetto, living second rate
      And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate.
      The places you play and where you stay
      Looks like one great big alley way.
      You'll admire all the numberbook takers,
      Thugs, BSD pimps and pushers, and the big money makers.

  15. it isn't done, i don't care. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    RC# isn't news, certently not front page news. now FreeBSD 5.2 RELEASE would be.

  16. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by Rhubarb+Crumble · · Score: 5, Funny
    Hey who is the OSDN hottie in red?

    An HP ProLiant DL140 server, apparently.

    Oh wait, you've probably got a different ad...

  17. Healing the pain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    While it is true that BSD is dying, there are some helpful steps you can take:
    • deal with the inevitable.
    • grieve for your loss.
    • move on.
    Never let your emotions get tangled up with something as silly as a computer
    operating system. It isn't healthy. So BSD fails. Big whoop. Deal with it and move on.
  18. Perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Perhaps this "bais" is due to the fact that Linux kernel panics are not news. However, kernel panics in BSD are so rare that when they occur they are indeed news.

    1. Re:Perhaps by chadm1967 · · Score: 1

      God, could everyone please remember that this is testing code???!!!??? This is not the final product!!! You can't honestly tell me that there are never problems with Linux kernels that are in testing stages, can you? Listen, I also use Linux but I'm not all high and mighty thinking that there are never issues.....

    2. Re:Perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps this "bais" is due to the fact that Linux kernel panics are not news. However, kernel panics in BSD are so rare that when they occur they are indeed news.

      If you use FreeBSD unstable, you take that chance. Its the choice for desktop use, only.

      BTW, if you havnt seen BSD crash, you dont use it enough. Real OS warriors will be beating the hell out of a desktop. Tinkering around doesnt cut it.

    3. Re:Perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      You know that gurgling sound you hear? That is the death rattle in *BSD's throat.

    4. Re:Perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps simply because Scott Long mentioned "panic" in his announcement?

  19. Needs help. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Someone please pull the tube from FreeBSD! Sincerely, Teri Schiavo

  20. BSD joins the "B" team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    We must report with a heavy heart that Bob "I'm still dead" Hope has gone on to join the "B" team. As you all may know, BSD has been part of the "B" team for quite some time.

    The Year of Our Lord 2003 has been a particularly bad year for the "B"s,

    • Bob Hope
    • Buddy Ebsen
    • Buddy Hackett
    • Barry White
    • BSD
    This honored list of dead is but a small token of adieu from the many fans of the deceased.
    These dead were truly some American Icons. They will be missed.
  21. Netcraft confirms! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Netcraft confirms: BSD is an operating system.

    That is all for now.

  22. Opteron 64-bit support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Does it have proper Opteron 64-bit support?

    And yes, before the Linux hordes flames me to death, yes I know that Linux kernel does have Opteron support and has been more or less 64-bit compatible since the DEC Alpha days.

    I'm talking about the distribution. I am considering buying a dual Opteron in January but all the Linux distros seem to be betas. A quick search on Google reveals that the distros have serious problems. In particular, X doesn't work and compilers fail completely.

    FreeBSD reports Opteron as tier-1 hardware, so how is it?

    1. Re:Opteron 64-bit support? by sremick · · Score: 5, Informative

      The following is from the October status report. A new one is due out soon as they are bi-monthly.

      AMD64 Porting

      Contact: Peter Wemm

      The last known bug that prevented AMD64 machines completing a full
      release has been fixed - one single character error that caused
      ghostscript to crash during rendering diagrams. SMP work is nearing
      completion and should be committed within the next few days. The SMP
      code uses the ACPI MADT table based on John Baldwin's work-in-progress
      there for i386. We need to spend some time on low level optimization
      because there are several suboptimal places that have been ignored for
      simplicity, context switching in particular. MTRR support has been
      committed and XFree86 can use it. cvsup now works but the ezm3 port
      has not been updated yet. The default data segment size limit is 8GB
      instead of 512M, and the (primitive) i386 binary emulation support
      knows how to lower the rlimits for executing 32 bit binaries.

      Notable things missing still: Hardware debug register support needs to
      be written; gdb is still being done as an external set of patches
      relative to the not-yet-released FSF gdb tree; DDB does not
      disassemble properly; DDB cannot do stack traces without
      -fno-omit-frame-pointer - a stack unwinder is needed; i386 and amd64
      linux binary emulation is needed, and the i386 FreeBSD binary
      emulation still needs work - removing the stackgap code in particular.

      The platform in general is very reliable although a couple of problems
      have been reported over the last week. One appears to be a stuck
      interrupt, but all that code has been redone for SMP support.

    2. Re:Opteron 64-bit support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      It is official; Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying

      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

    3. Re:Opteron 64-bit support? by nuintari · · Score: 1

      Considering part of FreeBSD's project goals is to be the best UNIX system available for Intel(like) hardware, I would wager a big sum that it either works now, or is the developement cycle, being worked on furiously. Since 64 bit computing is where the intel/amd market is going, its likely where FreeBSD will go as well.

      --

      --Nuintari

      slashdot : where an opinion can be wrong.

    4. Re:Opteron 64-bit support? by xwred1 · · Score: 1

      Gentoo runs pretty will on amd64. I'm running it right now.. the compiler works fine, XFree is up with drivers that Nvidia specifically released for amd64 (but they won't accelerate 32bit GL or do xv), mplayer and most everything I've tried to build and use has worked just fine.

    5. Re:Opteron 64-bit support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      Then there is another item which must be considered. That is the simple fact that *BSD is dying.

      *BSD is dead meat, as they are wont to say say in the butcher trade.

    6. Re:Opteron 64-bit support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who said Linux AMD64 port isn't stable yet?

      I know it is stable, because I use one :-)

      Buy a system based on AMD (AMD 8000) or VIA (K8T800) chipset, and I think you will be fine.

      I use Gigabyte GA-K8VNXP (VIA K8T800), Athlon 64 3200+, 512 MB Kingston KVR400X64C25/512 DDR400, Seagate 120 GB 8 MB Cache ATA 100 hard drive, CD Burner, DVD Drive, Radeon 7000 Video card etc.. And I use SUSE 9 for AMD64 distribution.

      I have stress tested this system from both CPU, Memory and IO point-of-view (under both SUSE's 2.4.x kernel and custom 2.6.0-X8664), and I have not seen a single System stability issue. As for XFree86, the open-source radeon kernel DRI driver supports my card. I play TuxRacer with no problem :-).

      Refer some of these URL's and read users' feedback, before make up your mind:
      http://www.x86-64.org/mailinglists
      http:// marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=suse-amd64&r=1&w=2

      The RedHat RHEL products support AMD64 platform. When Mandrake 9.2 for AMD64 will be released, I expect it be good. (I think a Fedora based distribution is in the make. I hear both Debian and Gentoo AMD64 distributions are in the make too.)

      IOW you need to get the right components then you will be fine. My advise is that do not buy a system where you need to use closed source (binary only) kernel drivers, that will spoil your Linux experience. IOW buy a system where everything works out-of-the-box from kernel.org's and x86-64.org's kernels (2.6.0 for eg..)

      All the best.

      Hari.

    7. Re:Opteron 64-bit support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      The FreeBSD platform in general is very unreliable, and many many problems have been reported over the last week alone. One appears to be a stuck interrupt, but all that code has been redone for SMP support. Why do they bother? SMP SUCKS on FreeBSD.

    8. Re:Opteron 64-bit support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody cares, troll.

  23. Lessons from the grave by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    What We Can Learn From BSD
    By Chinese Karma Whore, Version 1.0

    Everyone knows about BSD's failure and imminent demise. As we pore over the history of BSD, we'll uncover a story of fatal mistakes, poor priorities, and personal rivalry, and we'll learn what mistakes to avoid so as to save Linux from a similarly grisly fate.

    Let's not be overly morbid and give BSD credit for its early successes. In the 1970s, Ken Thompson and Bill Joy both made significant contributions to the computing world on the BSD platform. In the 80s, DARPA saw BSD as the premiere open platform, and, after initial successes with the 4.1BSD product, gave the BSD company a 2 year contract.

    These early triumphs would soon be forgotten in a series of internal conflicts that would mar BSD's progress. In 1992, AT&T filed suit against Berkeley Software, claiming that proprietary code agreements had been haphazardly violated. In the same year, BSD filed countersuit, reciprocating bad intentions and fueling internal rivalry. While AT&T and Berkeley Software lawyers battled in court, lead developers of various BSD distributions quarreled on Usenet. In 1995, Theo de Raadt, one of the founders of the NetBSD project, formed his own rival distribution, OpenBSD, as the result of a quarrel that he documents on his website. Mr. de Raadt's stubborn arrogance was later seen in his clash with Darren Reed, which resulted in the expulsion of IPF from the OpenBSD distribution.

    As personal rivalries took precedence over a quality product, BSD's codebase became worse and worse. As we all know, incompatibilities between each BSD distribution make code sharing an arduous task. Research conducted at MIT found BSD's filesystem implementation to be "very poorly performing." Even BSD's acclaimed TCP/IP stack has lagged behind, according to this study.

    Problems with BSD's codebase were compounded by fundamental flaws in the BSD design approach. As argued by Eric Raymond in his watershed essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, rapid, decentralized development models are inherently superior to slow, centralized ones in software development. BSD developers never heeded Mr. Raymond's lesson and insisted that centralized models lead to 'cleaner code.' Don't believe their hype - BSD's development model has significantly impaired its progress. Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.

    The failure of BSD culminated in the resignation of Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith from the FreeBSD core team. They both believed that FreeBSD had long lost its earlier vitality. Like an empire in decline, BSD had become bureaucratic and stagnant. As Linux gains market share and as BSD sinks deeper into the mire of decay, their parting addresses will resound as fitting eulogies to BSD's demise.

  24. Try it today! by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 2, Funny
    I want everybody in the community to know that 5.2 RC2 is the best version of FreeBSD yet, and is even the best OS out there. I have been using 5.2 RC2 for over three years over here, currently reflected in its uptime, because it has not crashed at all over the entire three years.

    Anybody who hasn't tried 5.2 RC2 yet is really in for a treat...

    1. Re:Try it today! by mercan01 · · Score: 1

      Um...if 5.2 RC2 was just released today...please explain where this "three years" timeframe comes from.

    2. Re:Try it today! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      YHBT YHL HAND...moron

    3. Re:Try it today! by CoolVibe · · Score: 1

      H.G. Wells called. He wants his time machine back.

    4. Re:Try it today! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      There is only one way to look at it:
      *BSD is dying
    5. Re:Try it today! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      *BSD is like the problem child dying of some rare incurable disease.

  25. FreeBSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    You don't keed to be Kreskin to look into FreeBSD's future. Even a child knows that FreeBSD is dying. All major marketing surveys show that FreeBSD has steadily declined in market share. FreeBSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim.

    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.

    The numbers continue to decline for *BSD but FreeBSD may be hurting the most. Look at the numbers. The loss of user base for FreeBSD continues in a head spinning downward spiral. In truth, for all practical purposes FreeBSD is already dead. It is a dead man walking. It's a fact: FreeBSD is dying.

  26. Don't run free software if you can't code! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1
    In particular, X doesn't work and compilers fail completely.

    (BEGIN RANT)

    So you expect other people to fix it for you for free, eh?

    I don't know about the rest of you, but I think this particular attitude is becoming a real problem in the free software community. Fucking tech-illiterate lamers wishing to run Linux because it's "cool" and then when they run into a little bit of trouble: "Does it work?", "Why doesn't it work?", "Why should I have to do anything about it?!". Whine, whine, whine, bitch, bitch, bitch.

    Hello! It comes with SOURCE CODE! You can either shut up and go back to your favourite toy operating system (Win-hell or OSX) or grab that piece code and fix the goddamn problem yourself.

    We're quickly turning into a community where the minority consists of the hackers that attempts to pander the majority of PHBs, lamers and wannabes. Stop pandering them. Give them some code and tell them to put up or shut up. We don't need freeloaders here.

    (END RANT)

  27. Elegy for *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Elegy For *BSD


    I am a *BSD user
    and I try hard to be brave
    That is a tall order
    *BSD's foot is in the grave.

    I tap at my toy keyboard
    and whistle a happy tune
    but keeping happy's so hard,
    *BSD died so soon.

    Each day I wake and softly sob
    Nightfall finds me crying
    Not only am I a zit faced slob
    but *BSD is dying.

  28. Hmmmm by daserver · · Score: 1

    Wasn't 5.2RC2 just released?

    1. Re:Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somebody's sarcasm detector needs tuning.

  29. Experienced user panic during install? by Chemisor · · Score: 3, Funny

    > bugs, specifically the one in which users
    > experienced system panics during install

    I wonder how they expect anyone to actually use an operating system whose installation procedure makes experienced users panic... Oh, yeah; I forgot. It's open source.

    1. Re:Experienced user panic during install? by essdodson · · Score: 1
      I wonder how they expect anyone to actually use an operating system whose installation procedure makes experienced users panic... Oh, yeah; I forgot. It's open source.
      Mastery of mspaint does not qualify you as an experienced user.
      --
      scott
    2. Re:Experienced user panic during install? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      FreeBSD's final Christmas

      Outside this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild winter hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their departed owner, FreeBSD.

      This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead FreeBSD. No longer will FreeBSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, FreeBSD lies cold and still. FreeBSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for FreeBSD, for FreeBSD is dead.

      Goodbye, FreeBSD. The pain of life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.

    3. Re:Experienced user panic during install? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      haiku

      flask of ripe urine
      pressed to dead bsd lips
      bsd drink up

    4. Re:Experienced user panic during install? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Freebsd == Cocksmoking Teabagger

  30. It's over. The thrill is gone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    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 endeavor 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 legitimize 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.

  31. Status of pf, NAT, etc? by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What's the status of pf on FreeBSD? And what's the preferred packet filtering/firewall setup these days?

    The last I checked, circa 4.8, you had to recompile the kernel just to get a NAT "router."

    Has NAT-ing and filtering drawn any attention in the 5.x series?

    I ask because FreeBSD has about the best host adapter/hard drive support in the business [possibly better even than NetWare] - if you've got an old hba and an old hd, FreeBSD will load the drivers and do the LBA translations to perfection. I've seen countless motherboard/HBA/HD combinations where e.g. Windows 2000 just can't get the LBA translation right. Or OpenBSD, for that matter.

    Which brings me to the question of Theo. Since I'm interested in NATing/PFing/SSHing, most people would say, "Then you want OpenBSD," to which I say, Yeah, some of Theo's goals are laudable, but, quite frankly, the guy's a kook, and guts of his operating system don't work all that well.

    I'd rather use something designed by grown-ups.

    1. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: -1, Redundant

      and guts of his operating system don't work all that well

      and the guts of his operating system don't work all that well

    2. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      'pf' is available in the ports.
      'ipf/ipnat' are available with kernel options.
      'ipfw/natd' are available by loadable modules without recompiling the kernel.

    3. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by dodell · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, you still have to add options DIVERT into the kernel to get IPFW to work with natd, if that's what you mean.

      One of the goals for 5.3 (and indeed something that Sam has been doing some wonderful and hard work on) is cleaning up the IP stack. Getting IPFW pfil(9) ready (if I understood correctly) is also one of these goals and will mean that using any software firewall solution such as pf, IPFW or ipfilter would be a question of loading the module. At which point you wouldn't have to recompile the kernel for this functionality.

      But this is a 5.3 goal and will not be present in 5.2.

      Hope this was of help.

    4. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One of the goals for 5.3 (and indeed something that Sam has been doing some wonderful and hard work on) is cleaning up the IP stack. Getting IPFW pfil(9) ready (if I understood correctly) is also one of these goals and will mean that using any software firewall solution such as pf, IPFW or ipfilter would be a question of loading the module. At which point you wouldn't have to recompile the kernel for this functionality.

      Hope this was of help.

      I can't tell you how welcome this sort of functionality will be. I know I'll get flamed for this, but some of us out here in the real world just don't have the time to spend a couple of weeks trying to recompile a kernel. [And no, it's obviously not the actual compile time - it's the fiddling: What happens if I set this flag? What happens if I don't set that flag? Oops, that didn't work - maybe if I were to change that to this... Getting the configuration just right can take nigh unto forever.] Loadable modules for filtering, NATing, and SSHing will be MOST appreciated.

      Thanks, and keep up the good work.

      PS: If I can be a little greedy, the other thing that really benefits a firewall-ish device is rock solid support [i.e. drivers] for hardware-accelerated encryption [SSL, SSH, and the like]. Of course, rock solid drivers are one of FreeBSD's fortes, but if you're redesigning the stack, I'd just say: Redesign it with hardware acceleration very much in mind.

    5. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      The number one problem with FreeBSD is that it is a failure. Almost every problem with FreeBSD relates back to that. It becomes a vicious cycle--FreeBSD continues to self-destruct because it is a failure, and it is a failure because it continues to self-destruct.

      The old saying that "nothing succeeds like success" has a flip side--failure breeds more failure.

    6. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      Star Trek Wisdom:

      It's dead, Jim.
    7. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by bark · · Score: 1

      i'm using 4.9 and i never had to recompile to get my nat box working. I'm using the ipf / ipnat combination, and they were already installed. I just had to configure them, and put it in the starup scripts. The recompiling part is for purists who would rather have them in kernel vs. loading them as modules. For noncritical work, modules are fine. I looked into ipfw / natd, but the configuration is too nasty. ipf/ipnat is in comparison so much simpler.

      The freebsd handbook *always* wants you to recompile. That's not the case if you just want to use the modules.

    8. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      The way I see it, FreeBSD is in irreversible decline.

      Shhh. Don't tell anyone but it is D E A D

      Ponder that, big guy.

    9. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      Hi,
      Fact: FreeBSD is dying

      Hope this was of help.

    10. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > The last I checked, circa 4.8, you had to
      > recompile the kernel just to get a NAT "router."

      Hmm.. yeah, you need divert sockets if you use the default ipfw packet filter.

      You could try for ipf tho, but last time I looked at it, it was far from a recent version, and besides, with all respect for Darren, I don't bother with ipf

    11. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The FreeBSD platform in general is very unreliable, and many many problems have been reported over the last week alone. One appears to be a stuck interrupt, but all that code has been redone for SMP support. Why do they even bother? SMP SUCKS on FreeBSD.

    12. Re:Status of pf, NAT, etc? by frost22 · · Score: 1
      [...] don't have the time to spend a couple of weeks trying to recompile a kernel. [And no, it's obviously not the actual compile time - it's the fiddling: What happens if I set this flag? What happens if I don't set that flag? Oops, that didn't work - maybe if I were to change that to this... Getting the configuration just right can take nigh unto forever.]

      Huh ?

      Your default install kernel has been compiled from GENERIC, too. Copying GENERIC to MYVERYOWNKERNEL, inserting option "IPDIVERT" somewhere and remaking that is a matter of about 10 minutes (less on a fast machine)

      You dont have to write your kernel file from scratch...

      --
      ...and here I stand, with all my lore, poor fool, no wiser than before.
  32. Calm down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    "Peace on earth, good will to men!" to you too...

  33. stability, THEN release by Gothmolly · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "NOW is the time to fix them so that they can be tuned and maintained prior to the 5.3 Release when the code is marked stable..

    Shouldn't this read something like:
    NOW is the time to fix them so that they can be tuned and maintained so that the 5.3 Release can be marrked stable.

    In other words, the code should be marked stable when it IS, rather than at some arbitrary release level.

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:stability, THEN release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No ...

      The issue is that there may be hardware that is unstable with the current release, but without testing, that's unknown. Therefore, it's likely that it will be marked stable when all of the known bug reports are in, and at some later time, someone will show up with untested hardware that has bugs.

  34. Elegy For *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


    Elegy For *BSD


    I am a *BSD user
    and I try hard to be brave
    That is a tall order
    *BSD's foot is in the grave.

    I tap at my toy keyboard
    and whistle a happy tune
    but keeping happy's so hard,
    *BSD died so soon.

    Each day I wake and softly sob
    Nightfall finds me crying
    Not only am I a zit faced slob
    but *BSD is dying.


  35. Lights out, pard. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Somewhere, in a lonely hospital room,
    *BSD is dying
  36. Niggers of the *BSD Ghetto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


    BSD you grow in the ghetto, living second rate
    And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate.
    The places you play and where you stay
    Looks like one great big alley way.
    You'll admire all the numberbook takers,
    Thugs, BSD pimps and pushers, and the big money makers.

  37. test the release over the holidays ? by Jenty · · Score: 2, Funny

    that's the best part IMGO: "Scott is asking everyone to test this release over the holidays". What a scary geeks you are !

    1. Re:test the release over the holidays ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      And what else would you do?

      Sit down with the extended family?

      No friggin' way!

    2. Re:test the release over the holidays ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      You BSD people and your homosexual "lifestyles" make me sick.

      Maybe you are too busy worshiping your BSD devil to have a clue. But hey, no matter how often you bow down to the BSD devil, you can't get away from God's holy power.

      BSD people, with His help you can be cured. Stop the devil idolatry. Stop the boy-man "love". And don't forget, that God created Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and Steve. If you don't like it, well that is too darn bad because it is His world not yours. He makes the rules, not you.

  38. Again, -STABLE is _NOT_ the most stable. by dodell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I re-iterate. -STABLE is *NOT* the most stable branch. It is not comparable to 2.4 in Linux. For more information, please see http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/current-stable.htm l (which explains the -CURRENT and -STABLE branches as well as a bit about releng.)

    But yes, thanks to the developers who have been working on this. And thank heavens that it's the holiday season; now I'll finally have time to work on locks in the IPv6 stack (thanks Sam and Robert ;))

    1. Re:Again, -STABLE is _NOT_ the most stable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      STABLE is indeed not the most stable branch. But it _is_ comparable to Linux 2.4. 2.4.23 is a hell of a lot different than 2.4.0. They're "stable" in that they aren't having radical changes (although 2.4 did have some doozies), but they do have semi-active development.

      RELENG, as you're talking about, is nearly immutable. The only fixes are for security/stability. Sticking with, say, RELENG_4_9, is like picking kernel 2.4.23, and staying there, only applying patches that are absolutely necessary. So you have, say, 2.4.23p4 instead of jumping to 2.4.25 (or whatever).

    2. Re:Again, -STABLE is _NOT_ the most stable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Fact: FreeBSD is dying

    3. Re:Again, -STABLE is _NOT_ the most stable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      -STABLE is *NOT* the most stable branch

      And less is more, more is less. We have always been at war with Oceana.

    4. Re:Again, -STABLE is _NOT_ the most stable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I re-iterate. -STABLE is *NOT* the most stable branch. It is not comparable to 2.4 in Linux.

      Then what is? I know! 3.3-RELEASE!

  39. OK, I'll bite by argoff · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's dying!

    OK, It's so much that it's dying .... it's that all these companies like SCO are able to keep living by forking off endless proprietaty code for themselves because the FreeBSD license allows it. Do a "strings" command on any SCO binary and you'd be amazed how much similar stuff they have to the FreeBSD equivalents. (what's even more amazing is that for all that copying you'd think they'd be able to make SCO stable)

    1. Re:OK, I'll bite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      haha GPL bunny.

      You must be fat too...

    2. Re:OK, I'll bite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      BSD is dead. This implies FreeBSD is dead. What part of dead don't you understand?
      1. Grieve.
      2. Get over it.
      3. Move on.

      You're a big boy now. High time you started acting like one.

  40. *BSD Dating Service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    OSDN now has a *BSD Dating Service

    Please try to keep posts on topic

    .

    .

    Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page)

  41. Do the testing for the developer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Scott is asking everyone to test this release over the holidays.

    Is this an example of copying the Microsoft practice of having the customers perform the actual testing?

    1. Re:Do the testing for the developer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      don't forget, this is pre-release code. on top of that, it's not like it'll cost you a cent.

    2. Re:Do the testing for the developer? by chadm1967 · · Score: 1

      Exactly!

      This is open source. You know, where we all help each other to make a better product? Unlike Microsoft, where you pay THEM to test THEIR product and then you get NOTHING in return.

      If you don't want to support this project, then don't. It's as simple as that. Just don't come here comparing us (the open source community) to Microsoft. :-(

    3. Re:Do the testing for the developer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Lafayette is dead. FreeBSD is dead. So is the France of Lafayette's time. It's too bad, but it is true. I wish we had the France of Lafayette on our side, but we have the France of the socialists against us.

    4. Re:Do the testing for the developer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Didn't you hear? The Socialists lost the election. You might even say they are dying.

  42. BONES by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    _d8b____________________d8b_______d8,
    _?88____________________88P______`8P
    __88b__________________d88
    __888888b__.d888b,_d888888________88b_.d888b,
    __88P_`?8b_?8b,___d8P'_?88________88P_?8b,
    _d88,__d88___`?8b_88b__,88b______d88____`?8b
    d88'`?88P'`?888P'_`?88P'`88b____d88'_`?888P'

    ______d8b________________________d8b
    ______88P________________________88P
    _____d88________________________d88
    _d888888___d8888b_d888b8b___d888888
    d8P'_?88__d8b_,dPd8P'_?88__d8P'_?88
    88b__,88b_88b____88b__,88b_88b__,88b
    `?88P'`88b`?888P'`?88P'`88b`?88P'`88b

  43. FreeBSD's final Christmas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Outside this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild winter hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their departed owner, FreeBSD.

    This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead FreeBSD. No longer will FreeBSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, FreeBSD lies cold and still. FreeBSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for FreeBSD, for FreeBSD is dead.

    Goodbye, FreeBSD. The pain of life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.

    1. Re:FreeBSD's final Christmas by chadm1967 · · Score: -1, Troll

      Wow.....that was stupid.

    2. Re:FreeBSD's final Christmas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      The way to look at it is so very simple:
      FreeBSD is dying
  44. THE hottie in red by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    This is the hottie in red.

  45. More like son-of-BSD by jhines · · Score: 4, Insightful

    BSD itself died, back at v4.4 when UCB stopped doing development itself. The body parts have been transplanted into computer systems all over, almost every system has some BSD code.

    The current BSD's are like the children of the original, taking on the family business.

    BSD is like the late, great, patriarch, whose portrait hangs on the wall, in the living room of the family mansion.

    1. Re:More like son-of-BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      FreeBSD's final Christmas

      Outside this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild winter hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their departed owner, FreeBSD.

      This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead FreeBSD. No longer will FreeBSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, FreeBSD lies cold and still. FreeBSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for FreeBSD, for FreeBSD is dead.

      Goodbye, FreeBSD. The pain of your fated life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.

    2. Re:More like son-of-BSD by rainman_bc · · Score: 1

      That's absurd. It's like saying Linux is dead when Linus Torvalds stops development on the it...

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    3. Re:More like son-of-BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      Who cares. FreeBSD is D E A D

      Think about that for a change of pace.

    4. Re:More like son-of-BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      BSD once had potential but the procedural problems they are experiencing hurt it when it comes to the market. I suspect that this is probably in part because the BSD teams are not interested in such things, and that is a shame... In fact, although I labeled it as an inferior OS, this is not due to lack of progress within BSD -- it has been progressing somewhat, but rather because all the improvements they make tend to be quickly copied by their competitors AND they lack the developer pool to stay ahead of this game (a problem which does not exist in the Linux or Apache communities, though for somewhat different reasons).

    5. Re:More like son-of-BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, thought about it. But who cares? Oops, I'm still using FreeBSD... now what?!

    6. Re:More like son-of-BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      haiku

      flask of ripe urine
      pressed to freebsd lips
      bsd drink up

  46. Netcraft confirms: *BSD trolls are dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    With *BSD proving to be especially resilient, *BSD trolls are facing the reality that *BSD is, indeed, not dying after all. The particularly outspoken troll known only as "Anonymous Coward" recently said, "*BSD trolls will never die, like *BSD soon will! We will never give up! Face the death of *BSD and switch to a different OS and section!" but the numbers tell a different tale. In fact, in the month of December alone, *BSD trolling is down by 14%, continuing a pattern from earlier months. *BSD may not be dying after all, but it seems to be only a matter of time before the *BSD trolls' days of trolling the BSD section are over.

    Fact: *BSD trolls are dying.

    1. Re:Netcraft confirms: *BSD trolls are dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Why do slashdot moderators rate every contribution as "troll" that has the word "troll" in the subject or body?

      Why do slashdot moderators mod up/down articles when an anonymous reply asks them to do so?

      Intelligent people ask questions.
      When they dare to moderate, they are removed from the moderator's pool quickly.

      I hit the karma cap over a year ago and I'm holding it. But had no mod points since more than 6 months, (I think) because I dared to mod up an opinion that expressed a POV that wasn't pro-american. This is a sad place.

    2. Re:Netcraft confirms: *BSD trolls are dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      dead bsd haiku

      flask of ripe urine
      pressed to dead bsd lips
      bsd drink up

    3. Re:Netcraft confirms: *BSD trolls are dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      You're a real artist.
      Please die.
      So that I can piss on your collected works.

    4. Re:Netcraft confirms: *BSD trolls are dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      yhbt yhl hand

  47. MOST INSIGHTFUL POST EVER! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
  48. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    26793
    1. Re:FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      That was fixed while ago fuckhead. At least keep your trolls current.

    2. Re:FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      I can't believe that nobody is modding down some of these postings, in order to take away this toll's means to troll! If you down-mod some of these identical posting quickly enough then the troll's IP will be banned from further postings...

  49. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    19996
  50. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    23045
  51. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    22902
  52. GNU/Fascists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Shut up fucktard.

    Like it or not we - as a community - need the masses if free software is to survive. Elitist luddite assholes ("we don't need standardized gui" etc.) like you are the cancer holding Linux back.

    1. Re:GNU/Fascists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      Holding Linux back? Last time I checked, Linux is doing pretty damned well.

      Linux is all about freedom and it is stupid to suggest that there should be a standardized GUI that all distributions must use.

  53. Santa has a Christmas gift for *BSD: A COFFIN! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying.

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD community when recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest 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 further 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.

    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 hobbyist 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 dead

  54. Calling Dr. Kildare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    "Gillespie, this bitch is dead. Get the meat wagon . . ."

  55. 1,2,3, testing by ghettoreb · · Score: -1, Troll

    i'm sorry FreeBSD, i would love to help out and test but i'm testing Linux 2.6.0 right now. Maybe we can meet sometime later for some testing?

    1. Re:1,2,3, testing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Don't bother, FreeBSD is a fucking piece of shit.

      Troll Glass

    2. Re:1,2,3, testing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Make sure to ask what BSD stands for - is it Butt Sex Department or Boiz Sucking Dick?

  56. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by lpontiac · · Score: 1
    Hey who is the OSDN hottie in red?

    An HP ProLiant DL140 server, apparently.

    Oh wait, you've probably got a different ad...

    For sex appeal, pretty much anything beats the geek I'm staring at. Apparantly he's using his UNIX experience to administer Windows Server 2003.

  57. FreeBSD has been owned by ESL terrorists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    There is too much Eurotrash controlling the Free BSD project right now. It will go nowhere until Americans reclaim the project.

    Too many damn Russians, sausage-sucking Krauts and imported Euro-groomed Wogs. Let's not even talk about the cram-school "educated" Jap committers, who couldn't program a VCR for a million bucks.

    People who would normally be denied tourist visas becuase they are too peripheral, have now robbed the FreeBSD project of its dignity and its American roots. FreeBSD now a third-world operating system.

    You can't post anything on a mailing list without being assaulted by some desperate predatory Euro-snot who wants to move to the U.S. becuase he can't get his dick sucked in Elbonia.

    And then there are the the Pigeon English Liars.
    Ever talk to someone who pretends not to speak English because they don't want to explain themselves?

    You will understand if you post something on the FreeBSD mailing lists.

    The high number of desperate foreigners has forced the FreeBSD project to become an excersise in chattel slavery. Work for nothing or be flogged by your third-world masters.

    Becuase the invaders are right at home in a sweatshop environment, it has driven out most sensible Americans from participation.

    This comes at a price. Control of the project.

    So to all the digital democracy freaks out there: Think twice before opening the door.

    -- Sincerely,

    Arnold Schwartzenneger
    Governor of California
    Emporer of Austria

  58. OT: OSDN Hottie by kace · · Score: 2, Informative

    For those of you that have been neglected by the gods or ad rotation, look here. (Do you think the red ad was designed to match the /.-BSD theme?)

    Whoever she is, I can tell she's into BSD.

    1. Re:OT: OSDN Hottie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      I can tell she's into BSD.

      yeah, she does look like a nercophiliac

  59. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    19699
  60. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    8014
  61. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    18030
  62. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    160
  63. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    2414
  64. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    15244
  65. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    7867
  66. Better jail support by gtrubetskoy · · Score: 3, Informative
    5.x has much better jail(8) support than the 4.x. IMHO jail is a killer app of FreeBSD.

    What I really wish for is private Sys V IPC and multiple IP's for jails to be available as standard features. Currently, there are some patches out there, but they seem outdated.

    1. Re:Better jail support by Ixokai · · Score: 1

      Forgive my ignorance, but what's the difference between jail and Linux' chroot?

      I'm not trying to start an argument, just curious :)

    2. Re:Better jail support by kiwirob · · Score: 1

      http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=4447 Try this for a brief description ;)

  67. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    18744
  68. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    9268
  69. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    20840
  70. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    19517
  71. *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    1. You can not play games on it.
    2. It cannot be used by my grandma.
    3. It lacks a GUI of any note.
    4. There is no support available for it.
    5. It is an assortment of fragmented OSes.
    6. It cannot be run on the x86 platform.
    7. You have to compile everything and know C.
    8. Support for the latest hardware is always poor.
    9. It is incompatiable with GNU/Linux.
    10.It is dying.

    1. Re:*BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      It cannot be used by my grandma.

      So, your grandma is so stupid, she can't even use FreeBSD?

      Damn - that's stupid - have another bowl of paint chips, on the house...

    2. Re:*BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      YHBT YHL FOAD

      Way to nail him on that one item out of ten, by the way. Idiot.

  72. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    16325
  73. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    23344
  74. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    27350
  75. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    8779
  76. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    5849
  77. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    9287
  78. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    11090
  79. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    24956
  80. FreeBSD 5.2 is doomed to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Back in the day, around FreeBSD 2.2.8, it was a very nice operating system. However, when RELENG_5 was branched, a lot of wrong decisions were made, most of them by people with zero clue about how to implement proper SMP (e.g. John Baldwin). Matt Dillon tried to fix the situation, but all he got in response was a commit bit suspension, which later lead to his expulsion.

    You can thank assholes like: Poul-Henning Kamp (POT, KETTLE, BLACK), Greg Lehey, Dag-Erling Smorgrav, Mark Murray and Bill Fumerola for kicking him out and making sure that, thanks to overengineering, RELENG_5 will never work.

    Further proof, FreeBSD recently went 100% dynamic to allow the use of NSS switch system. John Dyson, who did most of the VM work back in the day, pointed out how wrong this decision was. Dillon also jumped in and offered a better solution. What he got as reward was Scott Long telling him to go away. Listen Scott, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. Not only you don't even know how to quote, but you also managed to fuck the 5.1-R isos twice. I wonder how can you be in re@, that sure has lead to the piss-poor quality of the last 2 or 3 releases.

    FreeBSD 5.2 is currently in the RC phase, but it has a very important showstopper that needs to be ironed out before it's released. Activating softupdates during install is a sure way to kernel panic. RELENG_5 is doomed, and will never work. Install DragonFlyBSD while you can.

    Joseph Mallett, an ex-committer.

    28245
  81. Unpopular Freedom by Alethes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Allowing freedom includes allowing people to do things you don't necessarily agree with. I used to defend the GPL consistently, but I'm starting to feel like "Free as in Speech" should also include unpopular speech, and that's what the BSD license protects that the GPL does not.

    In the words of Theo de Raadt: ...software which OpenBSD uses and redistributes must be free to all (be they people or companies), for any purpose they wish to use it, including modification, use, peeing on, or even integration into baby mulching machines or atomic bombs to be dropped on Australia.

    As opposed to the the GPL, which exists as Stallman's attempt to redefine "Free Software" as any software that suits his political ideology.

    The GPL as a strategy is fine, but to call it "freedom" is less than honest. Whose freedom is being protected by the GPL? The developers? Not really. The developers are only allowed to use the source as long as they conform to the RMS ideology that the work they do should benefit the collective and not necessarily just the individual who wrote the software. As for the users, what freedom do they gain by using GPL software over BSD licensed software? The freedom to use software that does not co-exist peacefully with others? The freedom to view the source code they don't understand or care to understand? Besides, the original BSD software always remains free as in speech and beer, even if the Hated Proprietary Software Vendor of the Week exercises their right to protect their own interests.

    I'm certain that I'll be moderated as a troll, but this something that I've been pondering quite a bit lately, and I'm certainly willing to be proven wrong.

    1. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Progman · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Whose freedom is being protected by the GPL?

      The author's freedom. The author chooses the license under which he makes his software available, remember?

    2. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Alethes · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The author's freedom is also protected by the Microsoft EULA and by copyright laws. I'm not convinced that the GPL provides any additional protection for the author. As a matter of fact, the GPL proponents would say otherwise -- that the author is giving up some of his freedoms provided by copyright so that somebody else can benefit from the source. The question is who benefits? My thinking is that it's developers who share the collectivist ideology that RMS calls "freedom". Which just makes me think "Freedom to do what?" or "Freedom from what?".

    3. Re:Unpopular Freedom by bmedwar · · Score: 1

      You are definitely more sane than 99.999% of the population.

      --
      --Brian
    4. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ..software which OpenBSD uses and redistributes must be free to all (be they people or companies), for any purpose they wish to use it, including modification, use, peeing on, or even integration into baby mulching machines or atomic bombs to be dropped on Australia.

      I'm glad we got that out of the way, especially since my baby mulching machine is nearing readiness for beta testing. Any beta testers out there? http://babymulch.sourceforge.net

    5. Re:Unpopular Freedom by antiMStroll · · Score: 4, Insightful
      As opposed to the the GPL, which exists as Stallman's attempt to redefine "Free Software" as any software that suits his political ideology.

      A fairer perspective is that the BSD License and the GPL represent competing political ideologies, your assessment is a loaded one. Is the BSD a 'more free' license? Likely. Is it a better one for it? Debatable. 'More free' is not necessarily always better, crying 'fire' in a crowded theatre for example. From this non-developer's perspective, proprietary software will always live in conflict with OSS - SCO as another example - and the BSD license gives companies the means to do BSD harm. They take without giving. The GPL might be less free and, by forcing cooperation, the better for it and the future of the software under its wing.

    6. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      Don't believe their hype - BSD's development model has significantly impaired its progress. Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.

      The failure of BSD culminated in the resignation of Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith from the FreeBSD core team. They both believed that FreeBSD had long lost its earlier vitality. Like an empire in decline, BSD had become bureaucratic and stagnant. As Linux gains market share and as BSD sinks deeper into the mire of decay, their parting addresses will resound as fitting eulogies to BSD's demise.

    7. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Alethes · · Score: 1

      The GPL might be less free and, by forcing cooperation, the better for it and the future of the software under its wing.

      And that may very well be the case, but the problem I'm having is that it's being done under the banner of "Freedom", which "forced cooperation" certainly does not mean. Perhaps, instead of "Free Software", it should be renamed, "Cooperative Software", but even that's a misnomer, since GPL software often is unable to really cooperate with anything other than other GPL software consistently and predictably.

    8. Re:Unpopular Freedom by argoff · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Allowing freedom includes allowing people to do things you don't necessarily agree with. I used to defend the GPL consistently, but I'm starting to feel like "Free as in Speech" should also include unpopular speech, and that's what the BSD license protects that the GPL does not.

      I think you're working off the false premise that copyrights are not an inherent restriction of peoples freedom. The GPL solves this problem by "fighting fire with fire" the FreeBSD license doesn't.

      The logic is sorta similar to ..."I think people should be free to own slaves".

      The FreeBSD license disreguards that copyrights "the right to restrict what other people copy that is at their disposal" is inherently biased as anti freedom to begin with.

    9. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      really -- are you intentionally ignoring the obvious?

      they are free to use the code without otherwise arranging a license.

      smells like trolls around here

    10. Re:Unpopular Freedom by okmijnuhb · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I believe that the GPL as written, benefits the *users* of free software, more than any.
      It assures that improved or modified code is cycled back into the community for their benefit, rather than locked away as some proprietary binary.

    11. Re:Unpopular Freedom by adiposity · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree with your analysis, in that using the GPL doesn't really give a great measure of "freedom" to any who choose to use the GPLed code. In reality, it imposes extreme limitations on the developers, much as a proprietary license does. For the end user, there really is no difference, IMO.

      The original developer loses nothing, of course, unless he/she foolishly assigns the copyright to the FSF, in which case the code becomes even LESS free, because then it is owned by a third party, and is only available under very strict licensing. Doing so simply helps the FSF grow its suite of free software that is only available under the GPL. I suppose it's a noble goal, but the fact is it is just another company with strict licensing rules, although they include the benefit of being open source.

      On the other hand, the BSD license doesn't guarantee much of anything for the developers, and it's sad in a way that it's so easy to use the code w/o giving anything to the coders. And I suppose that's where the GPL comes in; if you feel that your free contributions should only be available to those who are willing to make more free contributions, you should use it.

      There is no question that the BSD license is more "free" than the GPL. But there is the issue of whether the GPL perpetuates more (a greater amount of) "free" code overall than does BSD. I think the GPL is quite useful in that sense.

      -Dan

    12. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      *BSD is dead meat, as they are wont to say say in the butcher trade.

    13. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      That gurgling sound you hear? That is the death rattle in *BSD's throat.

    14. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      I can only think of one way to sum it all up:
      Fact: FreeBSD is dying
    15. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      You are definitely more sane than 99.999% of the population.

      In consideration of the marketshare of various Microsoft products -
      such level of intelligence isn't very hard to achieve in this cheerless solar system, on a planet that is dragged along the moods of the dark souls of corrupted men.

    16. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Everyone knows that *BSD is dying. It's a fact,

    17. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Vancouver is facing the worst outbreak of syphilis per capita in the developed world, with city health officials fearful of a looming epidemic of the sexually transmitted disease once thought almost wiped out in North America. Some 254 new cases have been diagnosed locally this year authorities said early this week -- more than the total for North America in two decades, with more expected, said Dr. Michael Rekart of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. "There's a lot of unsafe sex going on in Vancouver and the disease has simply taken hold,"

    18. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      What We Can Learn From BSD
      By Chinese Karma Whore, Version 1.0

      Everyone knows about BSD's failure and imminent demise. As we pore over the history of BSD, we'll uncover a story of fatal mistakes, poor priorities, and personal rivalry, and we'll learn what mistakes to avoid so as to save Linux from a similarly grisly fate.

      Let's not be overly morbid and give BSD credit for its early successes. In the 1970s, Ken Thompson and Bill Joy both made significant contributions to the computing world on the BSD platform. In the 80s, DARPA saw BSD as the premiere open platform, and, after initial successes with the 4.1BSD product, gave the BSD company a 2 year contract.

      These early triumphs would soon be forgotten in a series of internal conflicts that would mar BSD's progress. In 1992, AT&T filed suit against Berkeley Software, claiming that proprietary code agreements had been haphazardly violated. In the same year, BSD filed countersuit, reciprocating bad intentions and fueling internal rivalry. While AT&T and Berkeley Software lawyers battled in court, lead developers of various BSD distributions quarreled on Usenet. In 1995, Theo de Raadt, one of the founders of the NetBSD project, formed his own rival distribution, OpenBSD, as the result of a quarrel that he documents on his website. Mr. de Raadt's stubborn arrogance was later seen in his clash with Darren Reed, which resulted in the expulsion of IPF from the OpenBSD distribution.

      As personal rivalries took precedence over a quality product, BSD's codebase became worse and worse. As we all know, incompatibilities between each BSD distribution make code sharing an arduous task. Research conducted at MIT found BSD's filesystem implementation to be "very poorly performing." Even BSD's acclaimed TCP/IP stack has lagged behind, according to this study.

      Problems with BSD's codebase were compounded by fundamental flaws in the BSD design approach. As argued by Eric Raymond in his watershed essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, rapid, decentralized development models are inherently superior to slow, centralized, bureaucratic ones in software development. BSD developers never heeded Mr. Raymond's lesson and insisted that centralized models lead to 'cleaner code.' Don't believe their hype - BSD's development model has significantly impaired its progress. Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.

      The failure of BSD culminated in the resignation of Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith from the FreeBSD core team. They both believed that FreeBSD had long lost its earlier vitality. Like an empire in decline, BSD had become bureaucratic and stagnant. As Linux gains market share and as BSD sinks deeper into the mire of decay, their parting addresses will resound as fitting eulogies to BSD's demise.

    19. Re:Unpopular Freedom by smallpaul · · Score: 1

      The GPL goes beyond fighting copyright. Copyright says nothing about the distinction between source and binary. If the GPL were entirely about undoing the damage of copyright, it would say nothing about source code. It would merely say that if you distribute your application you must also allow your users to redistribute it.

    20. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From this non-developer's perspective, proprietary software will always live in conflict with OSS - SCO as another example -

      As a non-developer perhaps you need to look into the SCO history.

      SCO used to be a GNU/Linux company called Caldera. Caldera took the IPO money made when they offered a GNU/Linux product and bought the UNIX(tm) code via buying SCO. Before SCO had UNIX(tm), Novell had UNIX(tm). And before Novell, USL had UNIX(tm). Back when USL had UNIX(tm), they took code from Berkeley, removed the copyright notices of Berkeley and put on USL copyrights.

      Now, somehow from these known facts you've come up with:

      BSD license gives companies the means to do BSD harm.

      The 'harm' to BSD was the ACTUAL theft of the code.

      forcing cooperation

      From http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Diction ary&va=cooperation

      "association of persons for common benefit"

      Why should anyone sign up for a FORCED association? Yet, this 'force' isn't all that effective, given the number of posts on slashdot telling of companies/people who are accused of violating the GPL.

    21. Re:Unpopular Freedom by j-pimp · · Score: 1

      Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.
      Ok lets burn some karma here

      Allowing anyone to reuse code does not nullify the achievements brough about by the code. That is unless your objective is non technical like Stallman's.

      Much BSD code has been reused by commercial products. Its a governemnt research project. A government setup by fans of Adam Smith. As such they set forth laws and precedents to encourage capitalism. This eventually evolved into government funding in research and universities that encouraged making technology available to corporations for them to make a profit. This is partially how BSD came about. Remember Berkley is a State school.

      One of their objectives was that corporations would steal their code, make better OSes, and cause the American dream of aqquiring lots of nice shiny things to be achieved.

      I personally use both Linux and BSD. Here is what I've observed. Decentralized development like Linux gives us innovation. The bazaar model gives you the most options. Thats why Linux has drivers for a zillion file systems, KDE and Gnome are so robust, and linux is the flagship platform for so many projects. However, the Cathedral model excells at polish. Thats why Linux Distros tend to use the Cathadrel approach. Debian and Gentoo being notable exceptions. Most distros have a central authority directing a team of developers to track a set of packages and maintain installer and configuration tools.

      --
      --- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
    22. Re:Unpopular Freedom by kirkjobsluder · · Score: 2, Interesting

      From this non-developer's perspective, proprietary software will always live in conflict with OSS - SCO as another example - and the BSD license gives companies the means to do BSD harm. They take without giving.

      This is one of the big flaws I find with GPL logic. Information should be free because it is an endlessly renewable resource. However we can't just let the information be out there without a license because some evil company might do it harm!

    23. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While GPL may force this to happen, it is fair to say that that exact force is taking away freedom of choice for the developer of derived software.

      Also, reality simply shows that many companies who use BSD licenced code also give code back. It is simply in their interest to keep their source alive, and that alone provides enough incentive to donate back.

      What the GPL tries is provide an economical model that makes it more attractive for developers to create open source software because they have a decent level of assurance that whenever someone builds on top of their development, they will see somethign back for it.

      As a result, the GPL provides some level of 'protection' by taking away a bit of freedom.

      Now, this idea may sound quite similar, and seems well suited for todays society in the USA.

      It is however wrong to call this trying to bring more freedom, because it is not.
      It is at best a better alternative for closed source software by providing a model that makes it less unattractive for commercial developers to publish the sources to their work.

    24. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "atomic bombs to be dropped on Australia."
      Please dont, we dont have any oil here.

      Well back under my bridge then...

    25. Re:Unpopular Freedom by xA40D · · Score: 1

      it's sad in a way that it's so easy to use the code w/o giving anything to the coders

      Why is it sad? And who say's I don't get anything out of writing BSD licenced code?

      Let me try to explain using the economic term "utility". The concept of utility is a measure of happiness or satisfaction.

      I could go on and on about this. But suffice it to say... I love writing code. I do. It gives me one hell of a buzz. Whether it be a PHP website, a quick Perl script, or mission critical application in C. Once it's written I really don't care. For me it's the journey, not the destination, which is important. If I am able to release my code I simply slap a BSD licence on it and forget about it I really don't care what happens next - I've gained all the utility I care about.

      And there is nothing sad about that.

      --
      Do you mind, your karma has just run over my dogma.
    26. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
      FreeBSD is dying.

      Look up the word kaput for clarification.

      Hope this helps.

    27. Re:Unpopular Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      The problem as most folks see it is the plain fact that *BSD is dying.

      Pretty much sums it all up, don't you think?

  82. Ode to BSD ... by Luscious868 · · Score: -1, Troll

    No one uses BSD, those that do smoke PCP! You know your not hearing someone lying, when they say that BSD is dieing. I know of many who are sick of trying, to install BSD without screaming and crying. Most complain BSD has no graphical interface, while a minority scream "but it still has it's place." BSD was once well renowned and great, but I'm afraid recent releases have sealed it's fate. To all of you who say BSD is here to stay, You're probably right but I'll keep trolling anyway!

  83. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by d3faultus3r · · Score: 1

    Are you listening, Neo? or were you looking at the lady in the red dress. And speaking of red, I'm glad the OS in the red devil(er... daemon) suit is getting opteron support.

    --
    read my blog
    musings on politics and technol
  84. Posted in proper format by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Hehehe .... I'm reposting your ode in proper format :-)

    Ode to BSD

    No one uses BSD,
    those that do smoke PCP!

    You know your not hearing someone lying,
    when they say that BSD is dieing.

    I know of many who are sick of trying,
    to install BSD without screaming and crying.

    Most complain BSD has no graphical interface,
    while a minority scream "but it still has it's place."

    BSD was once well renowned and great,
    but I'm afraid recent releases have sealed it's fate.

    To all of you who say BSD is here to stay,
    You're probably right but I'll keep trolling anyway!

  85. I agree with this post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I agree with this post

  86. Moderator is the troll! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The parent is a joke, and a pretty funny one. The moderator who marked the post as a troll is one who is doing the trolling. Fuck off Karma whore!

  87. New Technology Release by bmedwar · · Score: 0, Redundant

    How much longer will 5.x wear the "New Technology Release" label?

    --
    --Brian
    1. Re:New Technology Release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      5.3

  88. Troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Puhleeze.

    I had three BSD servers that would crash (sometimes often, sometimes sporadically) quite often that I had to switch over to Linux and NT.

    BSD users outright lie about the OS.

  89. Haha.. Truth CENSORED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    don't you dare talk bad about *BSD.. you'll get modded down.. don't want that pesky truth leaking out, now do we?

    1. Re:Haha.. Truth CENSORED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      don't you dare talk bad about *BSD.. you'll get modded down..

      Not nearly as much as you would for talking bad about Linux, or even worse, talking up M$.

    2. Re:Haha.. Truth CENSORED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      BS. You guys talk bad about Linux in here all the time and it gets modded UP.

  90. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    It is with a heavy heart that we must report Bob "I'm still dead" Hope has gone on to join the "B" team. As you all may know, BSD has been part of the "B" team for quite some time.

    The Year of Our Lord 2003 has been a particularly bad year for the "B"s,

    • Bob Hope
    • Buddy Ebsen
    • Buddy Hackett
    • Barry White
    • BSD
    This honored list of dead is but a small token of adieu from the many fans of the deceased.
    These dead were truly some American Icons. They will be missed.
  91. Update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    It is now official - Netcraft has confirmed: *BSD is dying

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD community when recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest 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 hobbyist 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 dead

  92. FreeBSD 5.2 RC2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm looking forward to trying this release out; I've been using FreeBSD 5.1 for a few months and have been very pleased with both the startup time and the relatively little difference between it and Linux. I mean that from a user's standpoint of course, I know the internals are drastically different, but quite a lot of source compiles on FreeBSD pretty easily with little or no patching, and there's always ports to handle that, which, digressing, is an extremely great feature that I know other OSes have. Anyway, it's worth a try if you're looking for something new, and I don't think you'll be entirely disappointed.

  93. Interesting analysis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    It comes as no surprise that FreeBSD was soundly defeated in yet another benchmark. Everyone knows that ever hapless FreeBSD is hopelessly mired in a mortifying tangle of fatal trouble.

    It is perhaps anybody's guess as to which FreeBSD is the worst off of an admittedly suffering FreeBSD community. The numbers continue to decline for FreeBSD but FreeBSD may be hurting the most. Look at the numbers. The erosion of user base for FreeBSD continues in a head spinning downward spiral.

    Consider that because of the many 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.

    Every major marketing survey has shown that FreeBSD has steadily declined in market share. FreeBSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are infinitesimally dim. If FreeBSD is to survive at all it will be among hobbyist dilettante dabblers. In truth, for all practical purposes FreeBSD is already dead. It is a dead man walking.

  94. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    In order to understand the big picture, you have to realize one fundamental fact:
    FreeBSD is dying
  95. FreeBSD tiger team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Roy Horn of the famous "Siegfried and Roy" magic ensemble was interviewed today from his hospital bed. Mr. Horn is recovering from a life threatening tiger attack. When asked about his condition, Roy had this to say,
    Don't worry. I'm doing OK. I'll be fine. However, on the other hand, *BSD is dying.

    Hang in there Roy. We're all pulling for you!

    1. Re:FreeBSD tiger team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Roy went home yesterday. Please try to keep your BSD trolls current.

    2. Re:FreeBSD tiger team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      YHBT YHL HAND

    3. Re:FreeBSD tiger team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Do you even know what "getting trolled" entails? Or did you just see it in one of your AOL chatrooms and think it was clever? YHBT YHL HAND OMG PIE NOODELS LOL ROFL!!@@!!!!!!!!!!!111111!

      You suck. Please die.

    4. Re:FreeBSD tiger team by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll

      no you lose. you were trolled, you took the bait, and you replied!

      YOU LOSE, BSD FUCKER

  96. 10 points to upset all the BSD Zealots: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    1. You can not play games on it.
    2. It cannot be used by my grandma.
    3. It lacks a GUI of any note.
    4. There is no support available for it.
    5. It is an assortment of fragmented OSes.
    6. It cannot be run on the x86 platform.
    7. You have to compile everything and know C.
    8. Support for the latest hardware is always poor.
    9. It is incompatiable with GNU/Linux.
    10. It is dying.

    1. Re:10 points to upset all the BSD Zealots: by smash · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I know I'm just feeding a troll... but in case anyone genuinely believes those points:

      1. You can play any game on it that runs on under linux, via linux emulation.
      2. Your grandma could use DOS, if set up properly
      3. Any gui used on linux works. Ships with KDE and gnome
      4. Documentation is far superior to linux (and thats based on my 7 yrs linux experience).
      5. Its far less fragmented than Linux.
      6. I'm running it on several x86 boxes right now, performing duties ranging from Ipsec gateways, to webservers, to desktops
      7. You can install most of the ports from packages. You do not need to know C - simply type "make install"
      8. USB was supported before Linux, just as one example from my comparatively limited (3 yrs) experience with BSD
      9. 2 words. Linux emulation. It works. VERY WELL.
      10. Sampling the population of my server room (1, 3 year old linux box, 4 BSD boxes, and 1 BSD box being built to replace the linux box), Linux is dying - not BSD :D
      11. On a more serious note - I'd recommend any Linux fan to give FreeBSD a shot. It took me a while to get my head around the whole philosphy behind the way things are done (just as I had to get used to Linux - its just "different" to most linux distros), but once you get used to it, its far more logical and consistant. Faster, in my experience, as well.

        Even if you decide to go back to Linux, knowing BSD will put you in a better position to understand the way other Unices work, as Linux is far less similar to them than BSD.

        My 2c.

        smash.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    2. Re:10 points to upset all the BSD Zealots: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Eh? And Windows 95 had USB before FreeBSD. Does that therefore make it a better OS?

      I find it entertaining when you BSD fans use such things to advocate your OS. I mean, just because a solid Linux distro is just as fast, reliable and well-documented as FreeBSD, but also offers much broader hardware support, software options and commercial support vendors (ie 5 yrs for RHEL over FreeBSD's pitiful 12 months), doesn't mean you have to write such nonsense.

      And what's this "less fragmented"? All distros share the same code. Meanwhile, the FreeBSD project just kicked out one of its most talented coders -- Matt Dillon -- who's gone on to start YET ANOTHER BSD fork. Great stuff, that.

      At the end of the day, Linux offers more than FreeBSD. Get over it.

    3. Re:10 points to upset all the BSD Zealots: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All Linux distro's do NOT share the same code! You idiot, if you're going to post nonsense about Linux stuff that you don't know, go back to windows 95 you fuck face! We don't need you with Linux you fucking retard!

      Go back to windows you loser and stay out of our Linux community! Linux ownz you bitch and windows sucks as much ass as you do! Now fuck off!

  97. pf/nat by adiposity · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I personally feel that ipfw/natd are a terrible combination, and are confusing and frustrating to use, to boot. I have been able to do everything I need to ipfw/natd, however. My major complaints were:

    1. Cannot dynamically reload rules of ipfw (your connection can be broken after a flush, and before new rules).
    2. Poor (really no) integration of natd/ipfw.
    3. Weaker rules/macros than pf.

    The FreeBSD pf port is coming along nicely. I am currently using it with a kernel loadable module and a startup script, both of which are installed by the port. You do still have to recompile the kernel:

    You need these options:

    "device bpf" and "options PFIL_HOOKS"

    The port will tell you to do this when you install it. My transition was very easy, and immediately I was happier with pf. I had never used it before, and I prefer it immensely. I use it to do firewalling and NAT, and they are integrated, of course.

    So, I'd say the status is...good! I'd prefer not to have to rebuild the kernel, but I'm used to that by now.

    -Dan

    1. Re:pf/nat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can agree with point 1..
      Point 2 is however a matter of design, and running NAT or anythign else that needs similar functionality as a userland process is a lot more flexible then a completely integrated solution.

      From a users point of view however it sucks coz there is no integration on the level of configuration files either.

      With regards to point 3, the simplistic way of makign rules in ipfw has at many times resulted in being able to insert a rule at the right line to stop traffic from triggering a bug in ipfw's handling of things. Whuile not ideal, it is a very usefull stopgap measure untill there is a fix.

      In similar cases, ipf has been vulnerable untill a fix was made multiple times.

      Syntactically the rules are less powerfull, but they give waaaay more control over what really happens with each packet as it passes the ip filter.

  98. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    SHIT ON ME! It's official - Netcraft has fucking confirmed: *BSD is dying

    Yet another cunting bombshell hit the "community" of *BSD asswipes when IDC recently confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of one single puny fucking percent of all servers. Coming hot on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more fucking market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is ingesting itself backwards, disappearing up its very own shitter, as fittingly exemplified by coming a piss poor dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a cock-sucking 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 fucking future at all for *BSD because that sorded, shit-filled, mutated testicle of an operating system is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink splashes across the accounting documents like a series of exploding bloodfarts. FreeBSD munches the most ass of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD cuntwipes Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying and its rotting corpse smells worse than a maggot, vomit, shit and piss cocktail.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the fucking numbers, shall we? OK!

    OpenBSD wanker Theo states that there are a pathetic 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Oh, God, let's fucking see... The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore it's turd-suckingly obvious that 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, by simple fucking arithmetic, there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. Surprise fucking surprise, this is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of those arseholes at Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD showed themselves to be a bunch of retarded tossers, went out of business and were taken over by BSDI who sell another special needs OS. Now BSDI is also a miserable failure, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house... pathetic.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily fucking declined in market share. *BSD is where it belongs, at death's door and its long term survival prospects are almost non-fucking-existant. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among moronic, dilettante shitheads. *BSD continues to Chew Satan's Dick And Fuck The Baby Jesus Up The Pooper. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD IS A FUCKING USELESS WASTE OF BITS AND IS DYING LIKE THE DOG THAT IT IS. IT MAKES ME SICK JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.

    1. Re:*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      BSD is dying.
      Your mother too.
      I am laughing.
      Let me pull the plug.

      beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

  99. Open Source - NOT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    BSD is NOT open source. It is BSD. Eric Raymond is not entitled to lay claim to any terms which describe BSD. One of the joys of BSD is NOT having to be exposed to the randomn and unpleasant encounters with this juvenile. Leave us in peace, please. We have all been working on the development & growth of BSD without Raymond's self-serving evangelism for many years. There's no point in dragging his self righteous politics into the world of BSD. So don't come here equating the people behind BSD to the all-talk-no-walk personalities who set up the shell game known as Open Source.

  100. Anyone know ... by the+real+darkskye · · Score: 1

    I had a problem with 5.2-RC1 where by on boot the kernel would detect the HDD and say [MPSAFE] and then pause for a while, this struck me as odd, mostly because i interperated MP to be Multi-Processor, and i was on a Uniprocessor machine (and thats an AMD, not an Intel P4 w/ HyperThreading, which i know is set up as a virtual CPU in the kernel for scheduling)
    If anyone knows if this has been resolved, I'll probably update my box from 5.1 to 5.2-RC2 tonight.

    As a side note, I'm curious as to what ports are broken, I've yet to encounter one that I can't compile under 5.x, including all the things I used to run under 4.x/3.x/2.2.x (yes i've had the same FreeBSD box that long)

    --
    Music is everybody's possession.
    It's only publishers who think that people own it.
    Fuck Beta
    ~John Lenno
    1. Re:Anyone know ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      FreeBSD suffers from a couple of serious process flaws -- it is an operating system which is truly at home neither in the open-source nor the proprietary markets primarily because, although the source is open, the development team is not. Furthermore the license allows proprietary software to "steal" source code and use it. The combination of these problems leads to a somewhat inferior OS.

      Now, Apache uses a BSD style license but they have an open development model which allows them to take advantage of a very large developer pool in order to stay ahead of their competition. In fact although proprietary versions of Apache exist which perform better than the official releases, SGI has put out some open source patches which generate even larger performance boosts. This is the reason why they have such a strong showing in terms of market share.

      BSD once had potential but the procedural problems they are experiencing hurt it when it comes to the market. I suspect that this is probably in part because the BSD teams are not interested in such things, and that is a shame... In fact, although I labeled it as an inferior OS, this is not due to lack of progress within BSD -- it has been progressing somewhat, but rather because all the improvements they make tend to be quickly copied by their competitors AND they lack the developer pool to stay ahead of this game (a problem which does not exist in the Linux or Apache communities, though for somewhat different reasons).

      I don't think that there is enough widespread support for BSD to save the operating system. What must be done is an opening up of the development process OR a GPL-style restriction on redistribution. In many ways I favor the former.

      Even in a worst case scenario, I don't see BSD completely dying. I think the developers are less into competition and more into a sort of idealized cooperation. As a result, even if BSD becomes more marginalized, I don't think that it will die outright. It will most likely outlive Netware, for example.

    2. Re:Anyone know ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think I had a problem similar to yours. I have a Shuttle SN45G with an Athlon XP, and FreeBSD 4.9-R installed just fine, but installing 5.X was problematic. It would hang right at the end of the hardware detection process where it lists disks. It listed md0, and sometimes ad0 and acd0, and then just freeze before running sysinstall (or just before running init, after I finished installing). I fixed it by disabling ACPI. After it was installed, I was able to reenable ACPI after building a custom kernel. I'm guessing all the extra hardware probes in the GENERIC kernel were causing problems.

    3. Re:Anyone know ... by kace · · Score: 1

      this struck me as odd, mostly because i interperated MP to be Multi-Processor, and i was on a Uniprocessor machine

      I can't find a good link now, but I read somewhere that the GENERIC kernel was going to be made SMP by default. Therefore, you may want to save some overhead and recompile your kernel without the SMP.

  101. BSD Mod's Can't Keep Up! Its whack-a-mole time! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


    In a startling turn of events today, a previously little-known fact came into the public eye: "*BSD Sux0rs". This came as a complete surprise to the BUWLA, or BSD Users With Large Assholes, as they previously thought that *BSD 0wned.
    "You see, even though I have never contributed code to any BSD project, I thought it was my duty to be a big asshole to others which don't use the OS I do, because it just 0wnz.", said one FreeBSD user. "Now that I know it sux0rs, though, I have to go find something else to be an asshole about."

    One notorious OpenBSD fanatic known as WideOpen, told reporters, "I have to kill myself. This isn't how it was supposed to happen. My BSD has always been the best, and shouting that opinion in other people's faces at every chance I got has been my only hobby. It was all I ever did. It was what got me out of bed in the morning. Now I have to die. I will jam my bedpost up my ass until I hit my brain. It is the only way to go: BSD style."

    In the volatile world of operating systems anything can happen. "At least we don't sux0r as much as Windows users", BigAzz, a relatively well-known NetBSD user said. "Screaming things in people's faces is my calling. Now I need to scream that BSD sux0rs. What a sad world. At least I won't kill myself like those uber-asshole OpenBSD guys. They are just way over the top. Or were, at least."

    Nobody knows for sure what the future holds for the state of operating systems, but with Netcraft confirming the sux0r status, *BSD users all over the world will have to stick something else up their asses from now on or risk looking even more gay than they used to.

  102. Sung to the tune "Bad Boys" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    BSD, BSD whatcha want
    Whatcha gonna do
    When SCO come for you
    Tell me whatcha gonna do
    BSD BSD
    Watcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
    When they come for you
    BSD, BSD
    Watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do
    When they come for you

    When you were eight
    And you had bad traits
    You go to school and you learn the golden rule
    So why are you acting like a dead fool
    If you get hot you must get cool

    BSD, BSD
    Watcha gonna do whatcha gonna do
    When they come for you (repeat)

    You chuck it on this one
    You chuck it on this one
    You chuck it on mother and
    You chuck it on you father
    You chuck it on you brother and
    You chuck it on you sister
    You chuck it on that one and you chuck it on me

    Nobody naw give you no break
    Troll naw give you no break
    Netcraft naw give you no break
    Not even you idren naw give you no break

    Why did you have to act so mean don't you know
    You're a human being born of a mother with
    The love of a father reflections come and reflections go
    I know sometimes you want to let go
    I know sometimes you want to let go

  103. BSD going down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    By STEVE LYSAKER, Bigfork Eagle

    Area horse owners, especially those around Echo Lake, may want to keep a close eye on their equine companions after two recent instances of abuse and theft.

    A naked man was found having intercourse with a horse in a stable on McCaffery Road around 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 17. Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont said the man, still nude, fled on foot when the owner of the horse entered the stable.

    "He left his boots and a bottle of hand lotion behind," Dupont said.

    Also found were a Yoda doll, Crisco, and a ticket marked "FreeBSD anniversary party". Sheriff's deputies concur that the suspect is an unemployed BSD developer.

    The incident came just days after a Flathead County deputy reported his horse missing. The horse had apparently been taken from its stable near Echo Lake early in the weekend. The horse was back in its stable by late in the weekend with traces of lanolin around its rectum, Dupont said.

    "It appears we have a serial horse rapist," Dupont said. The sheriff's office is investigating, and Dupont advised horse owners to be vigilant. "BSD is dying, and there is nothing which these BSD weirdos won't do in an act of desperation," he concluded.

  104. mspaint by Chemisor · · Score: 1

    > Mastery of mspaint does not qualify you as an experienced user.

    Perhaps not, but remembering that mspaint still exists might be a qualification in itself. That program seems as ancient as dosshell these days.

    1. Re:mspaint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      FreeBSD's final Christmas

      Outside this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their departed owner, FreeBSD.

      This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead FreeBSD. No longer will FreeBSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, FreeBSD lies cold and still. FreeBSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for FreeBSD, for FreeBSD is dead.

      Goodbye, FreeBSD. The pain of life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.

    2. Re:mspaint by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      mspaint is shipped as part of Windows XP. For bitmaps, it is the default action for "Edit" in explorer (not sure if it is still for Open - I've had too many things want to take that over). Not so ancient as dosshell.exe.

      XP still comes with Program Manager (\WINDOWS\system32\progman.exe)

  105. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Junior, BSD is dead. This implies FreeBSD is dead. What part of dead don't you understand?
    1. Grieve.
    2. Get over it.
    3. Move on.

    You're a big boy now. High time you started acting like one.

  106. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Outside of a few socially backward dweebs, no one, but no one, uses BSD.

    Yes it's dead. The BSD zealots need to wake up and smell the coffee.
    They also need to shower, brush their teeth, lose 100 lbs, and get a life.

  107. Then you sir are a moron... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    ...when properly set-up and not fucked up by incompetents like yourself, FreeBSD just runs and runs. I've never EVER had a FreeBSD box crash on me or otherwise not work. How? I read the fucking manual, thats how.

    1. Re:Then you sir are a moron... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Fact: FreeBSD is dying

    2. Re:Then you sir are a moron... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is this how you treat anyone who has anythind bad to say about *BSD? You call them names and say "its your fault!". Thats not a very professional way to keep people using your software, isn't it?

    3. Re:Then you sir are a moron... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Turn out the lights. The party's over.

      R.I.P. FreeBSD.

  108. FreeBSD 5.x by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    There are so many things in these new technology releases that I am so lookiing forward to implementing on my own machines once this branch becomes stable. GEOM Based Disk Encryption and LOMAC are among them.

    The background fsck saved me a couple of times before I got UPSs for them, and the new GENERIC SMP kernel will be great once I get my new dual Opteron.

    All in all FreeBSD is doing great, and I'll never go back to Linux; there's no incentive, nor need.

  109. Further information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    What We Can Learn From BSD
    By Chinese Karma Whore, Version 1.0

    Everyone knows about BSD's failure and imminent demise. As we pore over the history of BSD, we'll uncover a story of fatal mistakes, poor priorities, and personal rivalry, and we'll learn what mistakes to avoid so as to save Linux from a similarly grisly fate.

    Let's not be overly morbid and give BSD credit for its early successes. In the 1970s, Ken Thompson and Bill Joy both made significant contributions to the computing world on the BSD platform. In the 80s, DARPA saw BSD as the premiere open platform, and, after initial successes with the 4.1BSD product, gave the BSD company a 2 year contract.

    These early triumphs would soon be forgotten in a series of internal conflicts that would mar BSD's progress. In 1992, AT&T filed suit against Berkeley Software, claiming that proprietary code agreements had been haphazardly violated. In the same year, BSD filed countersuit, reciprocating bad intentions and fueling internal rivalry. While AT&T and Berkeley Software lawyers battled in court, lead developers of various BSD distributions quarreled on Usenet. In 1995, Theo de Raadt, one of the founders of the NetBSD project, formed his own rival distribution, OpenBSD, as the result of a quarrel that he documents on his website. Mr. de Raadt's stubborn arrogance was later seen in his clash with Darren Reed, which resulted in the expulsion of IPF from the OpenBSD distribution.

    As personal rivalries took precedence over a quality product, BSD's codebase became worse and worse. As we all know, incompatibilities between each BSD distribution make code sharing an arduous task. Research conducted at MIT found BSD's filesystem implementation to be "very poorly performing." Even BSD's acclaimed TCP/IP stack has lagged behind, according to this study.

    Problems with BSD's codebase were compounded by fundamental flaws in the BSD design approach. As argued by Eric Raymond in his watershed essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, rapid, decentralized development models are inherently superior to slow, centralized ones in software development. BSD developers never heeded Mr. Raymond's lesson and insisted that centralized models lead to 'cleaner code.' Don't believe their hype - BSD's development model has significantly impaired its progress. Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.

    The failure of BSD culminated in the resignation of Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith from the FreeBSD core team. They both believed that FreeBSD had long lost its earlier vitality. Like an empire in decline, BSD had become bureaucratic and stagnant. As Linux gains market share and as BSD sinks deeper into the mire of decay, their parting addresses will resound as fitting eulogies to BSD's ultimate demise.

  110. FreeBSD's final Christmas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Outside the frail walls of this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild winter hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their departed owner, FreeBSD.

    This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead FreeBSD. No longer will FreeBSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, FreeBSD lies cold and still. FreeBSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for FreeBSD, for FreeBSD is dead.

    Goodbye, FreeBSD. The pain of life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.

  111. Looking back by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    We must report with a sad and heavy heart that Bob "I'm still dead" Hope has gone on to join the "B" team. As you all may know, BSD has been part of the "B" team for quite some time.

    The Year of Our Lord 2003 has been a particularly bad year for the "B"s,

    • Bob Hope
    • Buddy Ebsen
    • Buddy Hackett
    • Barry White
    • BSD
    This honored list of dead is but a small token of adieu from the many fans of the deceased.
    These dead were truly some American Icons. They will be missed.
  112. Typical BSD asshole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Always has to take a potshot a Linux when its shown that *BSD Sux0rs

  113. dumbass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    ever heard of a proxy?

  114. Reality is a harsh bitch-goddess mistress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's that all these companies like SCO are able to keep living by forking off endless proprietaty code for themselves because the FreeBSD license allows it.

    Now this would be the company that took stock market IPO money from its GNU/Linux offering and bought the USL code. The same USL that had chunks of BSD copywritten code in the USL tree where the USL people removed the BSD license and copyright and put on USL copyrights?

    Your 'statement' ignores the past. But if it helps you feel better about yourself, keep thinking BSD licensed code is somehow evil, ok?

  115. RedHats off to the BSD guys. by alcmaeon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, I have to say, having just installed a FreeBSD (5.1) server in my house, I am blown away at the stability and easy configurability of this thing. I built the computer it is running on for $160.00 with (obviously) cheap parts and it is perfrominig like I had really spent some money on it. This was much easier to install software for and configure than any of the Linux distros I have used in the past, including the vaunted RedHat. Stable and fast. That's what I like, and this isn't even the current fork. :-)

    1. Re:RedHats off to the BSD guys. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


      I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you BSD fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a BSD box (a PIII 800 w/512 Megs of RAM) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 17 Meg file from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. At home, on my Pentium Pro 200 running NT 4, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this BSD box, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.
      In addition, during this file transfer, Netscape will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even Emacs Lite is straining to keep up as I type this.

      I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various BSD machines, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a BSD box that has run faster than its Windows counterpart, despite the BSD machines faster chip architecture. My 486/66 with 8 megs of ram runs faster than this 800 mhz machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that BSD is a "superior" machine.

      BSD addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a BSD over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.

    2. Re:RedHats off to the BSD guys. by bersl2 · · Score: 1

      This was much easier to install software for and configure than any of the Linux distros I have used in the past, including the vaunted RedHat. Stable and fast.

      Did you try Slackware? It runs on the lowest end of the hardware spectrum; has everything you need for a base system and then some, pre-packaged in tgz format; is easy to customize; and stable as hell.

      But really: what happened to love and peace? Y'know, BSD and Linux (or GPL, depending on point of disagreement considered) can coexist: BSD is Good, Linux is Good, and yay 4 us.

    3. Re:RedHats off to the BSD guys. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gee.. thats interesting. I tend to run NetBSD, not FreeBSD, just because of the consistency across all the platforms I have (PC, Mac, Sun, Alpha, Decstations, Vax, etc).... but, until recently when I upgraded my 10Mbit hub to a 100Mbit Cisco 2924 switch, I could copy a 17MB file to my P2/350 NetBSD fileserver over Samba from my PC (CIFS), at 10Mbit, in less than a minute. Strange how you could get such sucky results. Oh, and my fileserver is also running DNETC RC5-72 cruncher in the background, so its always at 100% cpu. And on top of samba, it runs my website. And yup, still less than a minute to copy over 10Mbit.

      Then again, I've seen this post many times before, just a silly troll trying to bash BSD. In fact, the "despite the BSD machines chip architecture"... umm... I thought this was about an OS, so what does the chip have to do with it? I mean, my P2/350 with 128MB runs *far* better running NetBSD than it ever would running windows.

  116. What We Can Learn by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll
    What We Can Learn From BSD
    By Chinese Karma Whore, Version 1.0

    Everyone knows about BSD's failure and imminent demise. As we pore over the history of BSD, we'll uncover a story of fatal mistakes, poor priorities, and personal rivalry, and we'll learn what mistakes to avoid so as to save Linux from a similarly grisly fate.

    Let's not be overly morbid and give BSD credit for its early successes. In the 1970s, Ken Thompson and Bill Joy both made significant contributions to the computing world on the BSD platform. In the 80s, DARPA saw BSD as the premiere open platform, and, after initial successes with the 4.1BSD product, gave the BSD company a 2 year contract.

    These early triumphs would soon be forgotten in a series of internal conflicts that would mar BSD's progress. In 1992, AT&T filed suit against Berkeley Software, claiming that proprietary code agreements had been haphazardly violated. In the same year, BSD filed countersuit, reciprocating bad intentions and fueling internal rivalry. While AT&T and Berkeley Software lawyers battled in court, lead developers of various BSD distributions quarreled on Usenet. In 1995, Theo de Raadt, one of the founders of the NetBSD project, formed his own rival distribution, OpenBSD, as the result of a quarrel that he documents on his website. Mr. de Raadt's stubborn arrogance was later seen in his clash with Darren Reed, which resulted in the expulsion of IPF from the OpenBSD distribution.

    As personal rivalries took precedence over a quality product, BSD's codebase became worse and worse. As we all know, incompatibilities between each BSD distribution make code sharing an arduous task. Research conducted at MIT found BSD's filesystem implementation to be "very poorly performing." Even BSD's acclaimed TCP/IP stack has lagged behind, according to this study.

    Problems with BSD's codebase were compounded by fundamental flaws in the BSD design approach. As argued by Eric Raymond in his watershed essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, rapid, decentralized development models are inherently superior to slow, centralized ones in software development. BSD developers never heeded Mr. Raymond's lesson and insisted that centralized models lead to 'cleaner code.' Don't believe their hype - BSD's development model has significantly impaired its progress. Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.

    The failure of BSD culminated in the resignation of Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith from the FreeBSD core team. They both believed that FreeBSD had long lost its earlier vitality. Like an empire in decline, BSD had become bureaucratic and stagnant. As Linux gains market share and as BSD sinks deeper into the mire of decay, their parting addresses will resound as fitting eulogies to BSD's demise.

  117. *BSD Top 10 by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll

    1. You can not play games on it.
    2. It cannot be used by my grandma.
    3. It lacks a GUI of any note.
    4. There is no support available for it.
    5. It is an assortment of fragmented OSes.
    6. It cannot be run on the x86 platform.
    7. You have to compile everything and know C.
    8. Support for the latest hardware is always poor.
    9. It is incompatiable with GNU/Linux.
    10.It is dying.
    .

  118. The *BSD Wailing Song by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll

    The *BSD Wailing Song

    What's left for me to see
    In my ship I sailed so far
    What can the answer be
    Don't know what the questions are.
    And after all I've done
    Still I cannot feel the sun
    Tell me save me
    In the end our lost souls must repent.
    I must know it is for certain
    Can it be the final curtain
    As long as the wind will blow
    I'll be searching high and low.
    Who knows what's really true
    They say the end is so near
    Why are we all so cruel
    We just fill ourselves with fear.
    And heaven and hell will turn
    All that we love shall burn
    Hear me trust me
    In the end our lost sould must repent.
    I must know it is for certain
    Can it be the final curtain
    As long as the wind will blow
    I'll be searching high and low
    Final curtain
    Final curtain

  119. The Sux0r Status by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll


    In a startling turn of events today, a previously little-known fact came into the public eye: "*BSD Sux0rs". This came as a complete surprise to the BUWLA, or BSD Users With Large Assholes, as they previously thought that *BSD 0wned.
    "You see, even though I have never contributed code to any BSD project, I thought it was my duty to be a big asshole to others which don't use the OS I do, because it just 0wnz.", said one FreeBSD user. "Now that I know it sux0rs, though, I have to go find something else to be an asshole about."

    One notorious OpenBSD fanatic known as WideOpen, told reporters, "I have to kill myself. This isn't how it was supposed to happen. My BSD has always been the best, and shouting that opinion in other people's faces at every chance I got has been my only hobby. It was all I ever did. It was what got me out of bed in the morning. Now I have to die. I will jam my bedpost up my ass until I hit my brain. It is the only way to go: BSD style."

    In the volatile world of operating systems anything can happen. "At least we don't sux0r as much as Windows users", BigAzz, a relatively well-known NetBSD user said. "Screaming things in people's faces is my calling. Now I need to scream that BSD sux0rs. What a sad world. At least I won't kill myself like those uber-asshole OpenBSD guys. They are just way over the top. Or were, at least."

    Nobody knows for sure what the future holds for the state of operating systems, but with Netcraft confirming the sux0r status, *BSD users all over the world will have to stick something else up their asses from now on or risk looking even more gay than they used to.

  120. *BSD Reaper by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll

    All our times have come
    Here but now they're gone
    Mac OS don't fear the reaper
    Nor do the windows, SUN or the rain..we can be like they are
    Come on baby...don't fear the reaper
    Baby take my hand...don't fear the reaper
    We'll be able to fly...don't fear the reaper
    BSD's bought the farm....

    Distro is done
    Here but now they're gone
    Romeo and Juliet
    Are together in eternity...Romeo and Juliet
    40,000 server crashes every day...Like Romeo and Juliet
    40,000 workstations reformatted everyday...Redefine happiness
    Another 40,000 coming everyday...We can be like they are
    Come on baby...don't fear the reaper
    Baby take my hand...don't fear the reaper
    We'll be able to fly...don't fear the reaper
    BSD's bought the farm...

    Love of two is one
    Here but now they're gone
    Came the last night of sadness
    And it was clear she couldn't log on
    Then the file was opened the wind appeared
    The mobo blew then disappeared
    The curtains flew then Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith appeared...saying don't be afraid
    Come on baby...and she had no fear
    And she ran to them...then they started to fly
    They looked backward and said goodbye...she had become like they are
    She had taken their hand...she had become like they are
    Come on baby...don't fear the reaper "

  121. Lights out, pard by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll

    Somewhere, in a lonely hospital room,

    *BSD is dying

  122. Lament by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll

    The End of FreeBSD
    [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

  123. Shit On Me - ITS FUCKING DEAD by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll
    SHIT ON ME! It's official - Netcraft has fucking confirmed: *BSD is dying

    Yet another cunting bombshell hit the "community" of *BSD asswipes when IDC recently confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of one single puny fucking percent of all servers. Coming hot on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more fucking market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is ingesting itself backwards, disappearing up its very own shitter, as fittingly exemplified by coming a piss poor dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a cock-sucking 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 fucking future at all for *BSD because that sorded, shit-filled, mutated testicle of an operating system is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink splashes across the accounting documents like a series of exploding bloodfarts. FreeBSD munches the most ass of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD cuntwipes Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying and its rotting corpse smells worse than a maggot, vomit, shit and piss cocktail.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the fucking numbers, shall we? OK!

    OpenBSD wanker Theo states that there are a pathetic 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Oh, God, let's fucking see... The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore it's turd-suckingly obvious that 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, by simple fucking arithmetic, there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. Surprise fucking surprise, this is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of those arseholes at Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD showed themselves to be a bunch of retarded tossers, went out of business and were taken over by BSDI who sell another special needs OS. Now BSDI is also a miserable failure, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house... pathetic.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily fucking declined in market share. *BSD is where it belongs, at death's door and its long term survival prospects are almost non-fucking-existant. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among moronic, dilettante shitheads. *BSD continues to Chew Satan's Dick And Fuck The Baby Jesus Up The Pooper. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD IS A FUCKING USELESS WASTE OF BITS AND IS DYING LIKE THE DOG THAT IT IS. IT MAKES ME SICK JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.

  124. YHBT YHL HAND! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    you fell for a blatantly obvious troll!

  125. YHBT YHL HAND by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    you fell for and actually spent time replying to a blatantly obvious troll/

    *BSD lusers are so insecure about their own operating system that they have to come out and defend it whenever someone pokes fun at it.

    1. Re:YHBT YHL HAND by smash · · Score: 1
      No shit fucktard, thats why I *clearly* posted "I know this is a troll".

      I posted the response in case some less clueful people out there actually took it as the truth.

      Which was a hell of a lot more relevant than your post.

      smash.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
  126. YHBT YHL HAND by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll
  127. You're stupid by *BSD+Morgue · · Score: -1, Troll

    by mere existance and use of *BSD

  128. Let me explain my troll to you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    1) I wrote it while bored at work.
    2) It took me 5 minutes to compose.
    3) Of course it is all bullshit.
    4) I first posted it using Mac OS X (oh the irony)
    5) It seems good at hooking in the BSD zealots.
    6) I am pretty ignorant of *BSD.
    7) Don't take it seriously.

  129. Handwriting on the wall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    xmas haiku

    flask of ripe urine
    pressed to freebsd lips
    bsd drink up

  130. Sux0rs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    In a startling turn of events today, a previously little-known fact came into the public eye: "*BSD Sux0rs". This came as a complete surprise to the BUWLA, or BSD Users With Large Assholes, as they previously thought that *BSD 0wned.
    "You see, even though I have never contributed code to any BSD project, I thought it was my duty to be a big asshole to others which don't use the OS I do, because it just 0wnz.", said one FreeBSD user. "Now that I know it sux0rs, though, I have to go find something else to be an asshole about."

    One notorious OpenBSD fanatic known as WideOpen, told reporters, "I have to kill myself. This isn't how it was supposed to happen. My BSD has always been the best, and shouting that opinion in other people's faces at every chance I got has been my only hobby. It was all I ever did. It was what got me out of bed in the morning. Now I have to die. I will jam my bedpost up my ass until I hit my brain. It is the only way to go: BSD style."

    In the volatile world of operating systems anything can happen. "At least we don't sux0r as much as Windows users", BigAzz, a relatively well-known NetBSD user said. "Screaming things in people's faces is my calling. Now I need to scream that BSD sux0rs. What a sad world. At least I won't kill myself like those uber-asshole OpenBSD guys. They are just way over the top. Or were, at least."

    Nobody knows for sure what the future holds for the state of operating systems, but with Netcraft confirming the sux0r status, *BSD users all over the world will have to stick something else up their asses from now on or risk looking even more gay than they used to.

    1. Re:Sux0rs by timmarhy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      You sir, are a N00B

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  131. Although it is true that BSD is dying, there are s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Although it is true that BSD is dying, there are some helpful steps you can take ease your sorrow:
    • deal with the inevitable.
    • grieve for your loss.
    • move on.
    Never let your emotions get mixed up with something as silly as a computer operating system. It isn't healthy. So BSD fails. Big whoop. Deal with it and move on. Hope this helps.
  132. *BSD Feeding Tube Re-Inserted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Oct. 23 -- BSD resumed receiving life-sustaining care yesterday in a
    Florida hospital room, but many experts said there is virtually no hope
    that it will ever recover, despite it fan boy's desperate hopes.

    "IF IT'S over a year, BSD's not ever going to get up," said Fred Plum, a
    professor emeritus at Weill Cornell College in New York. "You'd just
    don't see it. It just doesn't happen."
    BSD, 39, has been in a persistent vegetative
    state since its heart stopped for unknown reasons in 1990. A feeding
    tube in BSD's stomach was removed this past Wednesday after its husband,
    Theo De Ratt, who said his wife had told him she (BSD) would not want to
    be kept alive under such circumstances, won a long series of court
    battles to have life-sustaining nourishment withdrawn so she (BSD) could
    die.

  133. Typical Linux asshole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Always has to take a potshot at Windows when it's shown that Linux sucks.

  134. Big problems with FreeBSD 5.2 RC2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you BSD fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a BSD box (a PIII 800 w/512 Megs of RAM) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 17 Meg file from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. At home, on my Pentium Pro 200 running NT 4, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this BSD box, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.

    In addition, during this file transfer, Netscape will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even MicroEmacs is straining to keep up as I type this.

    I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various BSD machines, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a BSD box that has run faster than its Windows counterpart, despite the BSD machine's faster chip architecture. My 486/66 with 8 megs of ram runs faster than this 800 mhz machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that BSD is a "superior" machine.

    BSD addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a BSD over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.

  135. PROOF OF BIASED MODERATION !!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Why was a post detaling problems with BSD modded down, but a post that praised BSD and made unfounded cheapshots at Linux modded up?

    And you guys wonder why you get trolled so much? Maybe if you folks weren't so uptight about your operating system and could have an honest discussion of the facts, you wouldn't be in this situation. But hey, you brought it upon yourselves.

  136. YHBT YHL HAND by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    you fell for a troll

  137. MOD ABUSE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Why was this modded down but the one above it not?

    They're both WAY offtopic. Oh wait, its not about topic, its all about how much of *BSD's ass you kissed.

    Sorry, I thought the moderation around here was fair and unbiased.

  138. YHBT YHL FOAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HAND

  139. BSD Hikau by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    flask of ripe urine
    pressed to dead bsd lips
    bsd drink up

  140. NO YUO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    NO YUO

  141. FreeBSD 5.2 FAQ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Sure, we all know that *BSD is a failure, but why? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personas?

    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.

  142. ATA RAID Solutions for FreeBSD 5.x (5.2+)? by Jerk+City+Troll · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've recently switched from Debian Linux to FreeBSD 5.2. I was running a pair of RAID-1 arrays off a Highpoint HPT372 RocketRAID 133 controller using Highpoint's rather lackluster, "open source" driver. Of course, contacting them about FreeBSD support greater than 5.0 has yielded nothing useful, so now I am on the hunt for other solutions.

    I've come across offerings from 3ware, notably the 7006-2. What caught my eye about this card (well, all of them from 3ware) was that it's actually a hardware-based ATA RAID adapter (where as RAID functionality is implemented in software for most ATA controllers out there). Does this mean that I can use this card without any driver hell? Will a RAID-whatever array simply appear as another /dev/a[dr]* device or is it not that simple? (By the way, I care little about CLI tools for rebuilding the array. I am content to use the card's BIOS to do management.)

    Of course, if I can solve the problem with my Highpoint, that'd be useful too. Currently, if I create a RAID-1 array, the two real disks appear as /dev/ad4 and /dev/ad5 but I also get a /dev/ar0 device. However, if I simulate a disk failure, none of the devices appear. It appears to me like FreeBSD indeed supports the RAID functionality of this card out of the box, but a bit of minor tweaking is required.

    The bottom line however is I wouldn't mind buying a a RAID adapter with functionality implemented in hardware. That'd be better overall. I just want to make sure it'll work with flying colors in whatever OS I choose to use.

    1. Re:ATA RAID Solutions for FreeBSD 5.x (5.2+)? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hi, I just wanted to say that I use a 3ware Escalade (6200) controller with FreeBSD 5.2 BETA (I'm waiting for 5.2 release to upgrade completely) with the twe driver and it works BEAUTIFULLY. I'd highly highly recommend purchasing the 3ware card, you won't regret your decision.

      -Tofusensei

    2. Re:ATA RAID Solutions for FreeBSD 5.x (5.2+)? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Woops, I forgot to mention the way it works as well.

      When you boot up the computer it'll go to a 3ware RAID BIOS after the regular CPU bios where you can access your hardware and set up the RAID arrays directly. Then, as long as you have the twe driver compiled into your kernel your devices will show up as follows: /dev/twe0 /dev/twe1 /dev/twe2 etc etc etc

      Where each one is one array. So if you had 1 raid-0 running, for example, it'd show up as /dev/twe0 and you can mount it in fstab or with the mount command like any old hard disk before. It's quite simple.

      Good luck!

      -Tofusensei

    3. Re:ATA RAID Solutions for FreeBSD 5.x (5.2+)? by markscarbrough · · Score: 1

      I've heard nothing but great things about the 3ware cards, also, though I have no personal experience. I am running a FBSD 4.9 SOHO server using a promise fastrak ata raid controller with a raid 0+1 array and I've had absolutely no problems. The driver is included in the standard FBSD ata driver and the raid array can be probed using the 'atacontrol' command. I beleive that this card is a "software raid" card as you mentioned but it _smokes_ during normal operations. Unfortunately, RAID rebuilds can be quite lengthy, can involve downtime, and the card sometimes causes a kernel panic when a failure is simulated. Still, even in this case a simple reboot solves the problem and the card operates fine with the degraded array after restart.

      If you are looking for ultra-cheap solution, or have one of these promise cards built into a mobo (as in my case), and you are more concerned with data integrity/redundancy than with 100% uptime, this card is definitely servicable.

      Good luck...

  143. all anonymous cowards by timmarhy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    notice how all the moronic posts saying BSD is dead come from anonymous posters, in other words people who don't have a pair and don't have any real arguement. take a look at netcraft you bozos and see if bsd is dieing. I use bsd, it's got a much more coherent design then linux and it's documentation is much much better. It's multimedia isn't quiet as good as linux yet but that hasn't been as much of a focus as for linux. In short if you think BSD is old hat and dieing your an idiot, nuff said.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  144. YHBT YHL HAND by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FOAD

  145. Typical *BSD Troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    all fluff, conjecture, no supporting evidence, and takes cheap potshots at Linux.

    'nuff said

  146. HEY YOU COCKSMOKING TEABAGGER, IM NOT AC by *BSD+is+Dead · · Score: -1
    SHIT ON ME! It's official - Netcraft has fucking confirmed: *BSD is dying

    Yet another cunting bombshell hit the "community" of *BSD asswipes when IDC recently confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of one single puny fucking percent of all servers. Coming hot on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more fucking market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is ingesting itself backwards, disappearing up its very own shitter, as fittingly exemplified by coming a piss poor dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a cock-sucking 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 fucking future at all for *BSD because that sorded, shit-filled, mutated testicle of an operating system is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink splashes across the accounting documents like a series of exploding bloodfarts. FreeBSD munches the most ass of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD cuntwipes Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying and its rotting corpse smells worse than a maggot, vomit, shit and piss cocktail.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the fucking numbers, shall we? OK!

    OpenBSD wanker Theo states that there are a pathetic 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Oh, God, let's fucking see... The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore it's turd-suckingly obvious that 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, by simple fucking arithmetic, there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. Surprise fucking surprise, this is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of those arseholes at Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD showed themselves to be a bunch of retarded tossers, went out of business and were taken over by BSDI who sell another special needs OS. Now BSDI is also a miserable failure, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house... pathetic.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily fucking declined in market share. *BSD is where it belongs, at death's door and its long term survival prospects are almost non-fucking-existant. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among moronic, dilettante shitheads. *BSD continues to Chew Satan's Dick And Fuck The Baby Jesus Up The Pooper. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD IS A FUCKING USELESS WASTE OF BITS AND IS DYING LIKE THE DOG THAT IT IS. IT MAKES ME SICK JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.

  147. umass driver changes, RAID, and USB 2.0 by Black+Acid · · Score: 1
    I couldn't use my Acer USB portable ATA hard drive enclosure in 5.1, but it works great in 5.2-CURRENT. Just an update for anyone that was having trouble with their hardware under FreeBSD. 5.2-RC1 panic'd when detecting my RAID, but 5.2-RC2 (as well as 5.1) with ATAng works great.

    However, USB 2.0 (EHCI) is still not supported (to try it, add "device ehci" to your kernel configuration). This makes using portable hard drive enclosures under FreeBSD less than optimal, as transfers go at the slow 1Mbps of USB 1.1 instead of the much faster USB 2. No one seems to be working on ehci.c at the moment; Firewire portable drives currently seem to be a better option for support under FreeBSD.

    1. Re:umass driver changes, RAID, and USB 2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

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      ______d8b________________________d8b
      ______88P________________________88P
      _____d88________________________d88
      _d888888___d8888b_d888b8b___d888888
      d8P'_?88__d8b_,dPd8P'_?88__d8P'_?88
      88b__,88b_88b____88b__,88b_88b__,88b
      `?88P'`88b`?888P'`?88P'`88b`?88P'`88b

  148. Re:I thought you were dead! nt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Not exactly rocket science: D E A D I S B S D

    No, not rocket science. Just ordinary common sense.

  149. Helpful hints for RC2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    The Christmas season can be an especially difficult time for those suffering a personal loss. And while it is true that BSD is dying, there are some helpful steps you can take:
    • deal with the inevitable.
    • grieve for your loss.
    • move on.
    Never let your emotions get tangled up with something as silly as a computer
    operating system. It isn't healthy. So BSD fails. Big whoop. Deal with it and move on.
  150. BSD is DYING! by puzzled · · Score: -1, Troll

    :-) However, the trolls are going to be disappointed on this one - I pulled 5.2RC last night, burned the disk, and popped it into my spare IBM T20. Wonder of wonders, the PCMCIA slots in the T20 actually *work* under 5.2, something that none of the 4.X series has been able to get right.

    All in all 5.2 seems a very lively corpse. Maybe the trolls are just the shallow end of the Linux Fanboy gene pool?

    BSD is starting to speciate like Linux - instead of distros we see forks at a more fundamental level - first the Free/Open/NetBSD versions, and now we see a FreeBSD fork in DragonflyBSD and I see this new ekkoBSD, but I don't know why of the big three is its parent.

    It is a good time to be a FreeBSD admin - gives me lots of free time via its stability, so I am working on a customized Knoppix that will allow me to whack a couple of hundred M$ desktops in 2004 :-)

    --
    I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
  151. The Good Lord says: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Don't moderate just answer the fookin' question."

  152. Death is not pretty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It hurts 'n' stuff.