FreeBSD 11.1 Released (freebsd.org)

Billly Gates writes: Linux is not the only free open-source operating system. FreeBSD, which is based off of the historical BSD Unix in which TCP/IP was developed on from the University of California at Berkeley, has been updated. It does not include systemd nor PulseAudio and is popular in many web server installations and networking devices. FreeBSD 11.1 is out with improvements in UEFI and Amazon cloud support in addition to updated userland programs. EFI improvements including a new utility efivar(8) to manage UEFI variables, EFI boot from TFTP or NFS, as well as Microsoft Hyper-V UEFI and Secure Boot for generation 2 virtual machines for both Windows Server and Windows 10 Professional hosts. FreeBSD 11.1 also has extended support Amazon Cloud features. A new networking stack for Amazon has been added with the ena(4) driver, which adds support for Amazon EC2 platform. This also adds support for using Amazon EC2 NFS shares and support for the Amazon Elastic Filesystem for NFS. For application updates, FreeBSD 11.1 Clang, LLVM, LLD, LLDB, and libc++ to version 4.0.0. ZFS has been updated too with a new zfsbootcfg with minor performance improvements. Downloads are here which include Sparc, PowerPC, and even custom SD card images for Raspberry Pi, Beagle-bone and other devices.

Comments

W00t

[Hognoxious]

frosty psit du 2 lennart-free startup!

This description is informative

[whitlocktj]

"Linux is not the only free open-source operating system." LOL, yes we know. If anyone here knows about Linux, they SHOULD already know about Unix. FreeBSD came out in 1993 and was essentially a fork from 386BSD, another Unix OS. Linux was a kernel built to replicate Unix in 1991, but Unix has been around since the 60's in one form or another.

Good LTS policy

[Anonymous Coward]

From the announcement page linked in the summary,

"Based on the new FreeBSD support model, the FreeBSD 11 release series will be supported until at least September 30, 2021."

Very good to see.

Yay!

[Anonymous Coward]

So the rumors were false. FreeBSD hasn't been incorporated into systemd yet!

Thinking about it

[ichthus]

I've been thinking about trying FreeBSD (currently run Mint 18.2) How well does it perform on semi-modern hardware? Say, like a notebook with Intel graphics, backlit keyboard, Intel Wifi, Synaptics i2c touchpad, etc? How's battery life? I appreciate that there's more than one non-MS choice, but I'm under the impression that Linux is still the best choice for a notebook. Am I mistaken?

Re:Thinking about it

[i-sob]

I've been thinking about trying FreeBSD (currently run Mint 18.2) How well does it perform on semi-modern hardware? Say, like a notebook with Intel graphics, backlit keyboard, Intel Wifi, Synaptics i2c touchpad, etc? How's battery life? I appreciate that there's more than one non-MS choice, but I'm under the impression that Linux is still the best choice for a notebook. Am I mistaken?

I had a smoother experience with OpenBSD on my (old-ish) ThinkPad. FreeBSD tends to have newer drivers than OpenBSD. I've seen similar anecdotes that one or the other was much better out of the box on various laptop models.

Intel graphics was smooth sailing on FreeBSD and OpenBSD. I had to change one setting to get the Intel wireless working in FreeBSD (fine out of box in OpenBSD), and the Synaptics touchpad works under both, but FreeBSD took a kernel extension and playing around with config files to make the touchpad less finicky.

If you're curious, I suggest a test install of one and then the other on an external hard drive or USB stick to see which best detects your hardware.

Re:Thinking about it

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, first thing. Linux has gotten a lot simpler through the years. BSD on the other hand has as well just not to the exact same degree. When you get your system up and running you're more than likely going to have to compile a few things and get some config files in place. Additionally, BSD is more aimed at servers. You can still run it on desktop if that's what you wish, but you're going to find more exotic drivers lacking from BSD. If you want to have that BSD feel with Linux kernel, I suggest Slackware. Again, I'll point out, that a lot of the distros and kernels that Slashdot tends to like are mostly command line interfaces with dozens of config files you'll need to tweak out of box.

So if you want a *just works* system and don't care about OS, go to Windows. If you want a *just works* and do care, use Ubuntu, suse, Fedora, or any of the other user friendly distros. If you want to tinker on your system, go full power user, or basically you're ready to get down and dirty with an OS. Go Gentoo Linux, Slackware, or any of the BSDs out there.

Don't get me wrong, BSD is a fine OS, but if you don't have the time to devote to the OS or you don't want to devote the time, stick to something more friendly to the user side.

Re:Mascot holding them back and rightfully so

[LesFerg]

Are you for real? Its just a logo and a fun mascot. You don't have to buy the shirt.
So do you think Christians are also offended by the bitten apple logo, cos of, you know, that whole incident in the garden with the serpent? Or the Windows logo with that blasphemous rendition of a cross in the middle of it? Sheesh, how is a good Christian supposed to choose a clean wholesome O/S these days?

Re:Mascot holding them back and rightfully so

[F.Ultra]

And if you see the Windows logo you think about scam calls with an Indian accent?