Slashdot Mirror
Frenzy - FreeBSD-based LiveCD for sysadmins
techniX writes "Frenzy is a portable system administrator toolkit - FreeBSD-based LiveCD. It generally contains software for hardware tests, file system check, security check and network setup and analysis. Size of ISO-image is 200 MBytes (3" CD). Current version is 0.3, it contains almost 400 applications, full software list is on their site.
Main website
as well as some screen shots
Frenzy 0.3 screenshot"
Fasten Your Seatbelts!
400MB File + Slashdot = mmmm.... fried server
Btw.... first post
Nothing for you to see here, Please move along.
This is *BSD we are talking about. A "LIVE" CD? Isn't that.... oh. never mind.
Cd's like these are very useful, even in our Windows-centric company. One laptop had a fried harddrive, Windows crashed upon starting. First I tried the recovery console which was no help because the disk was beyond repair, then I tried a BartPE XP cd but that wouldn't recognize neither the nic in the docking nor a USB nic (no, I didn't want to have to add all sorts of drivers etc. to it first). Downloaded a FreeSBIE cd and it worked perfectly. The guy was very happy about his saved data, the shmuck.
*goes off to browse the site*
home
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 the Amazing 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
I hope they come up with a version that defaults to Window Maker. :)
Pretty Pictures!
... facts are facts. ;)
FreeBSD:
FreeBSD, Stealth-Growth Open Source Project (Jun 2004)
"FreeBSD has dramatically increased its market penetration over the last year."
Nearly 2.5 Million Active Sites running FreeBSD (Jun 2004)
"[FreeBSD] has secured a strong foothold with the hosting community and continues to grow, gaining over a million hostnames and half a million active sites since July 2003."
What's New in the FreeBSD Network Stack (Sep 2004)
"FreeBSD can now route 1Mpps on a 2.8GHz Xeon whilst Linux can't do much more than 100kpps."
NetBSD:
NetBSD sets Internet2 Land Speed World Record (May 2004)
NetBSD again sets Internet2 Land Speed World Record (30 Sep 2004)
OpenBSD:
OpenBSD Widens Its Scope (Nov 2004)
Review: OpenBSD 3.6 shows steady improvement (Nov 2004)
OpenSSH (OpenBSD subproject) has become a de facto Internet standard.
*BSD in general:
..and last but not least, we have the cutest mascot as well - undisputedly. ;)
Deep study: The world's safest computing environment (Nov 2004)
"The world's safest and most secure 24/7 online computing environment - operating system plus applications - is proving to be the Open Source platform of BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) and the Mac OS X based on Darwin."
--
Being able to read *other people's* source code is a nice thing, not a 'fundamental freedom'.
[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 goal
This cd cannot be used for serious tasks. It lacks the most essential application. EMACS.
my anus is bleeding! I mean, would someone please, PLEASE seed a torrent for this? Thanks. Signed, Man Who Enjoys Logic.
Are you secure enough in your masculinity to run 'man touch'?
Russian?
Um...
Well the screenshot looked nice anyway.
I
... We see our bourne,
I heard a small sad sound,
And stood awhile among the tombs around:
"Wherefore, *BSDs," said I, "are you distrest,
Now, screened from life's unrest?"
II
--"O not at being here;
But that our future second death is near;
When, with the living, memory of us numbs,
And blank oblivion comes!
III
"These, our UNIX ancestry,
Lie here embraced by deeper death than we;
Nor thread nor kernel can you descry
With keenest backward eye.
IV
"They count as quite forgot;
They are as systems who've existed not;
Theirs is a loss past loss of fitful breath;
It is the second death.
V
"We here, as yet, each day
Are blest with dear recall; as yet, can say
We hold in some soul loved continuance
Of shape and voice and glance.
VI
"But what has been will be --
First memory, then oblivion's swallowing sea;
Like Mac and Amiga, shall we merge into those
Whose story no one knows.
VII
"For which of us could hope
To show in life that world-awakening scope
Granted the few whose memory none lets die,
But all men magnify?
VIII
"We were but Fortune's sport;
Things true, things lovely, things of good report
We neither shunned nor sought
And seeing it we mourn."
I agree with the modding down (when all the FUD is under the +1 level, this should be as well), but being it a collection of pretty relevant *facts*, labeling it as Troll is an unjustifiable abuse.
I booted the GUI once briefly, but didn't have a mouse hooked up so it was useless. I don't really care about the GUI. The focus of this kit is mostly command line tools (though there are some gui-only tools). The system boots to a prompt; you have to start X from the command line if you want it.
It's pretty annoying the way it defaults to Russian if you don't press e within three seconds during boot up. But hey, it was made by Russians who are probably pretty annoyed by all the English they are forced to endure.
The BSD kernel is very nice for detecting hardware. They're method of automounting drives seems to work pretty well. The little help system they have included which categorises and lists all of the installed utilities to help you find your way around is indeed very helpful (it would be better still if it was searchable).
Anyhow, i love this disk. It's so useful. I tend to us it more than Knoppix now in many situations. All of the more admin-oriented linux boot disks i've tried tend to have gotten stale, not updated, and be hard to find out what tools are on them after booting. Maybe Frenzy will stagnate as well. But for now it is my favourite.
Also having a lot of BSD boxes of course I am biased. Most of the linux boot disks don't give much attention to UFS/FFS file systems.
..fuck I hate being banned from posting the truth.. ..I'm not fucking crapflooding or anything... .. zealots ..don't wanna hear --------
just posting.. what people
--BSD is dead
It looks like a decent livecd system and all, but does anyone else find it strange that they would include all those other archivers but not bother with tar or bzip2? I don't know if that software list is exhaustive, but that's pretty weird.
(\(\
(^v^)
(")")
This is the cute vorpal bunny virus, copy to your sig or runaway, runaway in fear!
Try http://frenzy.org.ua/eng/. ;)
You can also notice that tiny Rus/Eng switch on the main page's top right corner. Please remove dust from your monitor.
Normally, LiveCDs have concentrated on repairing systems, but finding out if there is a problem through running a BSD LiveCD sounds like a very useful idea.
Get a free iPod Nano 4GB!
Curiosly, frenzy seems to be totally FreeSBIE based. It would be interesting to see if he has reported the original licence.