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FreeBSD 7.0 Release Now Available

Posted by samzenpus on from the get-it-while-it's-hot dept.

cperciva writes "The first release from the new 7-STABLE branch of FreeBSD development, has been released. FreeBSD 7.0 brings with it many new features including support for ZFS, journaled filesystems, and SCTP, as well as dramatic improvements in performance and SMP scalability. In addition to being available from many FTP sites, ISO images can be downloaded via the BitTorrent tracker, or for users of earlier FreeBSD releases, FreeBSD Update can be used to perform a binary upgrade."

9 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Just use the default geometry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You don't need to set the disk geometry unless you have weird-ass old disk hardware. Just accept the defaults.

  2. ZFS Support by T-Bone-T · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary says it has ZFS support but the website says experimental ZFS support. That seems like a pretty important distiction.

    1. Re:ZFS Support by dewarrn1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      ZFS is indeed labeled experimental, and it's an important distinction. That said, I believe that Pawel Dawidek, who ported the file system from Solaris, is using it in production. The chief caveat at the moment is that ZFS should only be used on the amd64 architecture. Other issues are not specific to FreeBSD's implementation of ZFS, e.g., the large memory footprint, but are instead inherent to the current release of ZFS and would be the same under any OS. More about the project at http://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFS/.

    2. Re:ZFS Support by zulux · · Score: 5, Informative

      Seconded!

      We're using FreeBSD 7.2 RC2 ZFS in a production environment on Amd64. It's getting hammered, and holding up fine.

      1) ZFS has *solved* our storage problems.
      2) ZFS needs 2GB of RAM
      3) You should run it on a dual core processor if you're going to use compression.
      4) Research glabel so you can move drives around from cable to cable and still use the same device name.*

      *more info: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=glabel&sektion=8

      --

      Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  3. Re:ZFS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's quite good. Where I work, we've been using the release candidates to store upwards of 15 TB of data, spread over about 50 hard drives. We haven't had any problems, and the performance has been fantastic.

    Solaris still offers better support, but the ZFS support offered by FreeBSD is production quality.

  4. Good developer interview at onlamp by Jeff- · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is a good interview with many key FreeBSD contributers about new technologies and improvements in 7.0. It is quite technical.

    http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2008/02/26/whats-new-in-freebsd-70.html?page=1

  5. Re:STABLE by cperciva · · Score: 5, Informative

    *I love how STABLE just sticks out, like BSD wasn't stable before. Ha!*

    "7-STABLE" is FreeBSD-speak for "this implements the FreeBSD 7 API/ABI, and any program you write or compile for an earlier release will work just fine on a later release". In other words, the Application Programming/Binary Interfaces won't change in incompatible ways.

    This is in contrast to Linux, where updating to a new kernel (belonging to the same "stable" kernel branch, or even applying security patches) can make programs break until you recompile them.

    --
    Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
  6. Re:Still hard to install? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've never needed to know any of those things to install FreeBSD. We run a number of FreeBSD virtual machines and physical servers. I installed them all myself. The most complicated part was entering network information, since all of these systems had static IPs and weren't using DHCP. Unless you're doing something out of the ordinary, you can just use all the defaults and have a fully working system in 15-20 minutes on an average machine.

    I've been using FreeBSD since version 2.2.7. I've been using Linux and other OSs even longer. Operating systems that have been around as long as these weren't just created from the start to be a breeze to install. Linux used to require a lot more manual configuration than it does now... just because something like Ubuntu makes it easy doesn't mean it always was. Linux has progressed in this area, and so has FreeBSD, and so have most other mature operating systems.

    Also, FreeBSD is not targeted at the same audience as something like Ubuntu. A better comparison would be PC-BSD and Ubuntu, as they are targeted at desktop users. I guess maybe FreeBSD could be compared to the server or alternate editions of Ubuntu, in which case the install process (using text screens) is fairly similar.

  7. Re:Still hard to install? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please look at PC-BSD or DesktopBSD; they would be the equivalent to Ubuntu.

    http://www.pcbsd.org/
    http://www.desktopbsd.net/

    Disk Geometry trolling isn't funny or have you confused this with partitioning. So, are you trolling or are you stating that you don't like to partition drives. If it is partitioning then you may want to check out the above links; if you're trolling, then continue with what you're doing