FreeBSD 5.3-BETA6 Available

ulib writes "The FreeBSD 5.3 testing cycle goes on with a brand new BETA Release. Eager for the Final? Then try this Beta out (mirrors) and help them find/fix bugs! Here are the announcement (check it for fixes, enhancements & known issues), the schedule (could be updated soon), and the todo list."

Comments

Am I ready to take the BSD plunge?

[museumpeace]

I bought a cheap [e-mahcine] 2.4gHz box with the intention of just reformating XP to oblivion and loading up a Linux...but now here is BSD. Hmmm the install instructions at the BSD site look detailed. Last time I tried this was with RH 6.something, I was using an even cheaper machine with an oddball graphics card...never did get X windows or any thing but command line mode [which would have served my purposes]. I guess what I really want before wiping windows off my box is a throrough HW compatibility list...one size DOES NOT fit all PC's.

Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge?

[drmerope]

Not to mention that this upcoming release will have ndis support enabled by default... which should allow you to use a binary windows driver to get your card up and running.

Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge?

[Orlando]

First, getting BSD up and running as a desktop requires a bit of work and a certain comfort level working with the command line.

The instant workstation meta-port may take some of the pain (fun :) out of the experience :

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/h andbook/desktop-summary.html

Re:ULE scheduler?

[molnarcs]

The funny thing is that one of the reasons for switching back to 4BSD was problems with preemption. I tried options PREEMPTION with 5.3BETA3 and BETA5 _with SCHED_4BSD, and had exactly the same problems as with ULE (and preemption).

I've been using ULE since last year december (5.1) and I never had any problems with it. In fact, it performs much better, especially on the desktop (interactivity remains better while building in the background for instance). I will continue to use it for this reasons, despite not being the default.

/. is great for plungers

[museumpeace]

/. posters:
Thanks for all the information for a newbie taking the BSD plunge. This is /. at its best: a lot of people who know what they are talking about and willing to pass on what they know.
BTW, entirely by accident, I found an HP site where you can try out BSD. They are running FreeBSD 5.2.1. You sign up for an account and get to play on their machine. HP puts up the service as a way to show off its high performance systems [alpha's, 64-bit itaniums and other cool tools headed for obsolescence:( ]. I wonder if HP's choice of BSD as one of the OS's for testdriving their hottest boxes implys that they think BSD is less likely to get in the way of demanding computations than some other OS's we shant name.

Comment ends, sig begins :