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NetBSD 7.1 Released (netbsd.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the on-the-up-and-up dept.

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.

21 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. yea by Osgeld · · Score: 1, Funny

    but does it run linux?

    1. Re:yea by aliquis · · Score: 2

      BSD confirms it:
      Netcraft is dead. .. or well. _I_ never use it nowadays at-least ;)

    2. Re:yea by Kjella · · Score: 1

      -Linux compatibility improvements, allowing, e.g., the use of Adobe Flash Player 24.

      No, but they ported the good parts. If you're into BSD(m) you must enjoy the pain.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:yea by jandersen · · Score: 1

      I'm Linux user too, but I think it's great news. Linux needs competition to keep us on our toeas, so we don't get smug and lazy.

  2. wm(4) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That's nothing to brag about. All of those ethernet cards are over 10 years old.

    1. Re:wm(4) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And they still work!

  3. Yes, NetBSD can run some Linux binaries. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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).

    1. Re:Yes, NetBSD can run some Linux binaries. by paulatz · · Score: 1

      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).

      Do you think that switching to a *BSD is easier than just installing a distribution without systemd?

      I'm not even going to comment about the obvious gnome3 fallacy

      --
      this post contain no useful information, no need to mod it down
    2. Re:Yes, NetBSD can run some Linux binaries. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I get the hate for systemd and pulseaudio, but Linux being "legacy"? Please. The fact is that the BSD's are fossils moving at glacial speeds, with the possible exception of DragonflyBSD. They have just about zero mind-share outside their sect-like cults, whose pathetic attempts to rewrite reality - "Linux is legacy! OSX is FreeBSD!" - does them no service, and generally speaking they are understaffed, have packaging system that are clumsy, antiquated and fragile.

      I think it's sad, because realistic alternatives to Linux would be a good thing, but when your alternatives feel positively archaic even compared to Debian, package management is a complete joke compared to apt-get, zypper and cnf, and the "community" mostly seem to be a bunch of conceited, smug cunts who makes any Linux-community look warm and fuzzy, you're not going anywhere.

    3. Re:Yes, NetBSD can run some Linux binaries. by ruir · · Score: 1

      You can BET it is mainly systemd

  4. Perhaps it's time to give it a spin by wjcofkc · · Score: 1

    Over two and half decades I have used every *nix out there, both open and commercial. That is except for NetBSD. Perhaps it's time I give it a couple months attention. I have not had a serious nerd fix in awhile. Maybe I will find a good reason to put it to persistent use. Any NetBSD users out there that want to give me a heads up on the low down, I would be much obliged. If any such people wonder what I might use it for, consider anything and everything. I'm universal like that.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
    1. Re:Perhaps it's time to give it a spin by ogdenk · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:Perhaps it's time to give it a spin by Ailicec · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I found it nice for playing on SPARC32. The Linux distros have dropped sparc32, with Debian Etch being the last one I know of - if there's another I'd love to know about it. The linux kernel still supports sparc32, if you can find a distro to run it in. The NetBSD way of doing things took some adjusting, but its worth it to run modern software on some really old systems - like Sun2/3!

  5. Never tried it by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    I mostly use OpenBSD as my daily driver but I've been curious about NetBSD. Maybe I'll spin up a virtual machine and play around.

    1. Re:Never tried it by eneville · · Score: 1

      Last time I looked OpenBSD was not a great platform to play host to a vm.

      --
      Why UNIX?
    2. Re:Never tried it by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Well, it was a while since OpenBSD forked off NetBSD, so it would be interesting to see how much they diverged (aside from security features)

  6. Improvements? by TheDarkener · · Score: 1

    ...allowing, e.g., the use of Adobe Flash Player 24.

    Lol.

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  7. DRM Support by nuckfuts · · Score: 1

    ... Some highlights of the 7.1 release are...
    -Initial DRM/KMS support for NVIDIA graphics cards...
    All of the code is under non-restrictive licenses, and may be used without paying royalties to anyone.

    That NVIDIA bit doesn't sound non-restrictive.

    1. Re:DRM Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

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

  8. Legacy and brand new issues by unixisc · · Score: 1

    I get your point if you were referring to NetBSD, but FreeBSD does have a bit of mindshare, even if dwarfed by Linux. It's the underpinnings of network OSs like Juniper, its NAS is widely used, it's used by pFsense, and its typically the most pioneering of the BSDs. As far as packaging system, PC-BSD/TrueOS has PBI, which takes care of library dependencies - something I'm not aware that .deb or .rpm do.

    I do agree that calling Linux legacy is out of place, and that some things, like TrueOS, have stalled since the re-branding. I've tried updating the latest version of TrueOS and have given up - every attempt has choked. (I do plan to buy one more DVD since the update would let me play Steam games). But the comments about the community that you made may be true about just OpenBSD - I've not heard anything about that in the FreeBSD or NetBSD communities

  9. BSD movers & shakers by unixisc · · Score: 2

    License is not what keeps BSD where it is - it's inertia. Linux himself admitted that had something like FreeBSD or NetBSD existed during the time he was looking for an OS, he may have used that and not developed Linux.

    If anything, the license is what's encouraged companies to adapt it in preference to the GPL licensed software. It's the reason companies like Juniper, Sony (w/ Busybox) have gone w/ BSD. It's why Android uses a BSDL licensed userland instead of GNU. It's why the consoles have gone w/ BSD based OSs as well, rather than Linux. Yeah, Linux is still acceptable to companies who can live w/ GPL 2, but the GPL is not what's been driving Linux's acceptance. Rather, it's the mindshare as well as the size of the community that sees to it that Linux is well supported.