NetBSD 7.1 Released (netbsd.org)

New submitter fisted writes: The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 7.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 7 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Some highlights of the 7.1 release are:

-Support for Raspberry Pi Zero.
-Initial DRM/KMS support for NVIDIA graphics cards via nouveau (Disabled by default. Uncomment nouveau and nouveaufb in your kernel config to test).
The addition of vioscsi, a driver for the Google Compute Engine disk.
-Linux compatibility improvements, allowing, e.g., the use of Adobe Flash Player 24.
-wm(4): C2000 KX and 2.5G support; Wake On Lan support; 82575 and newer SERDES based systems now work.
-ODROID-C1 Ethernet now works.
-Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements.

NetBSD is free. All of the code is under non-restrictive licenses, and may be used without paying royalties to anyone. Free support services are available via our mailing lists and website. Commercial support is available from a variety of sources. More extensive information on NetBSD is available from http://www.NetBSD.org. You can download NetBSD 7.1 from one of these mirror sites.

Comments

Yes, NetBSD can run some Linux binaries.

[Anonymous Coward]

This renders your joke irrelevant, but NetBSD can run some Linux binaries.

Read about it here: https://wiki.netbsd.org/guide/linux/

The NetBSD port for i386, amd64, mac68k, macppc, and many others can execute a great number of native Linux programs, using the Linux emulation layer. Generally, when you think about emulation you imagine something slow and inefficient because, often, emulations must reproduce hardware instructions and even architectures (usually from old machines) in software. In the case of the Linux emulation, this is radically different: it is only a thin software layer, mostly for system calls which are already very similar between the two systems. The application code itself is processed at the full speed of your CPU, so you don't get a degraded performance with the Linux emulation and the feeling is exactly the same as for native NetBSD applications.

FreeBSD has similar functionality.

This is one of the reasons why so many former Linux users have moved to FreeBSD or NetBSD after being driven away from Linux by systemd, PulseAudio, GNOME 3, and other problematic software like that. Most Linux programs worth using compile just fine on the *BSDs, but if there are legacy, closed-source Linux applications that must be used there is at least some chance that they may work on FreeBSD or NetBSD. This makes for a very easy transition path away from Linux, or more correctly, away from systemd (it isn't the Linux kernel itself that most people have problems with, of course).

Re:Perhaps it's time to give it a spin

[ogdenk]

It's a BSD variant that will run on just about any oddball vintage hardware you have at your disposal..... 68K Macs, Atari TT's, VAX, Alpha, SPARC, UltraSPARC, sgi, DECstations, GE Microwaves, Sharp Can Openers, Compaq iPaq.

Emphasis is on portability but performance isn't bad.

Re:DRM Support

[Anonymous Coward]

it stands for Direct Rendering Manager in this case, not Digital Restrictions Management.