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NetBSD 8.0 Released (netbsd.org)
Slashdot reader fisted quotes NetBSD.org: The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 8.0, the sixteenth major release of the NetBSD operating system.
This release brings stability improvements, hundreds of bug fixes, and many new features. Some highlights of the NetBSD 8.0 release are:
— USB stack rework, USB3 support added.
— In-kernel audio mixer (audio_system(9)).
— Reproducible builds
— PaX MPROTECT (W^X) memory protection enforced by default
— PaX ASLR enabled by default
— Position independent executables by default
[...]
NetBSD is free. All of the code is under non-restrictive licenses, and may be used without paying royalties to anyone.
This release brings stability improvements, hundreds of bug fixes, and many new features. Some highlights of the NetBSD 8.0 release are:
— USB stack rework, USB3 support added.
— In-kernel audio mixer (audio_system(9)).
— Reproducible builds
— PaX MPROTECT (W^X) memory protection enforced by default
— PaX ASLR enabled by default
— Position independent executables by default
[...]
NetBSD is free. All of the code is under non-restrictive licenses, and may be used without paying royalties to anyone.
Nothing at all wrong with NetBSD. Runs on about everything. Been using it off and on since 1998. I prefer OpenBSD because it works better on laptops generally and has pf as a native program, but NetBSD is outstanding for embedded work and actually ran and runs some stuff for the space program. A phenomenal OS for small stuff.
...a Beowulf cluster of NetBSD 8.0s running?
I was curious since I'd never heard of this problem before (or even had a clue of what the problem was about). I was led to this blog post, which is quite interesting. The issue is having the same source tree always build an identical cdrom. On the surface it sounds simple, but a surprising amount of work was needed to make it happen, all detailed in the blog post. I can't help but admire the obsessive perfectionism that won't leave the problem alone until it is completely resolved.
NetBSD just received USB 3.0 support just now?
I had to check that. FreeBSD has had it since 2011.
Kriston
It doesn't happen overnight. Talent is removed from the contribution pool as eventually everybody makes a mistake and falls out of favour with the social justice crowd, and is ostracized. Others get sick of walking on eggshells all the time, worried they might offend somebody, and just say "fuck it", taking their skills elsewhere.
It's a culture of fear cloaked in good intentions. Comply or the howler monkeys start flinging shit.
It is official; Netcraft confirms: NetBSD is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already bleaguered *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 a 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. NetBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.
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 NetBSD has steadily declined in market share. NetBSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If NetBSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. NetBSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a cockeyed miracle could save NetBSD from its fate at this point in time. For all practical purposes, NetBSD is dead.
Fact: NetBSD is dead