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FreeBSD 3.3 Released
Cale Pearce was the first to write in with the news that FreeBSD 3.3 has been released, along with some release notes. As always, please use a mirror. Lots of new drivers, USB updates and other goodies included.
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The install is still the same (as of 3.0 anyway). It is a little confusing at first, but after a little use it's not that bad.
/src tree. You can also get by without /ports, /packages, and /proflibs. After you get the box up and running, you can grab these online (assuming the box has net access).
I don't know of a downloadable ISO, but if you can, I'd suggest you download a 'local mirror' to a local machine and do an FTP install off of there. It's relatively fast to do installs then (even if it takes you multiple attempts, like it did the first time I installed it.) Expect to use about 300 meg or so; you don't need the entire distribution tree either. Specifically, only get sys from the
Dunno about the Be filesystem drivers, but I kinda doubt it.
There is all ready some basic USB support in 2.2.x and that will be greatly improved in 2.4. You could also go and use 2.3.x if you want more USB support, last I tried it was pretty stable. Anyhow.. it's coming along.
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Bitchslapped? Give Rob a bitchslap from bitchslapped.com.
It's always nice to see a new release for *BSD.
I've long heard tales of how stable and secure the various BSD distributions are, and I'd be interested in trying one of them out, except...
I have no idea where to start finding info on them.
Anybody have a good resource to get started on *BSD with? I'm a "competent" Linux user, but from what I've been able to tell, *BSD just doesn't have the same type of huge 'fan-base' that Linux does.
The .ISO image is in the directory above the link posted in the article, so before people post asking where it is, the .ISO is in here. Only disk 1 of 4 is available as an .ISO from the main FreeBSD FTP site (Walnut Creek), as the README.TXT states:
.ISO images of all 4 CDs soon. However, if you use it, you should support good software with your purchase.
This directory contains FreeBSD installation ISO images (the 1st CD out of every 4 CD set from Walnut Creek CDROM). This should be enough to install the full operating system, though if you're looking for the full experience or wish to support the project through your CD purchase, please see http://www.freebsdmall.com. Thanks!
If you must have the entire 4 CD set for free, I'm sure that the usual suspects will have
Jordan mentioned that if testing goes OK, the
images will be sent off for high volume
replication tomorrow. Probably a few weeks until
cdrom.com ships them then.
Yes, please do support cdrom.com. They do a wonderful job supporting
FreeBSD! I've been CVSuping to -STABLE for months now but will continue my CD
subscription for that purpose alone.
Great work all FreeBSD developers!
Also, what's there to be negative about? FreeBSD and Linux are just different (esp in licensing which is, admittedly, a religious topic). I've run into a few problems getting things to port (ssleay-ified telnet), but nothing to slam BSD over. I don't dislike FreeBSD, I just don't use it. Choice is good, choice works:).
Bill - aka taniwha
--
Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
It's 1am EST and out of 21 messages, there hasn't been a single "LINUX ROOLZ, BSD SUX" (or vice versa) post. It's all been civil (and mostly positive), and that's just as it should be. I guess it's past the trolls' bedtimes.
(Of course by the time I've said this, the euro-trolls will be waking up and logging in.)
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Glad to see this baby's gone stable. Though I see a hell of a lot of sniping (not in the comments here yet, though, strangely enough) about which is better, I've got no problem using both 'em, and I find it really hard to beat *BSD as a server platform.
I think Linux may have some headway on the desktop (and whether that's because it's more suitable, or just because it's gotten more apps through media coverage, I can't say), but if I'm setting up a box I just want to connect and have workwithout any worries, I still go with a BSD.
Besides, if the two mascots got into a fight, you know the daemon'd win. An angry penguin biting you in the butt ain't jack compared to the damage of a red-hot trident.
For USB info: http://www.etla.net/~n_hibma/usb/usb.pl For links to this and other info: http://www.freebsd.org/projects/proje cts.html
Hadn't seem FreeBSD at CompUSA. Can't say that I was looking for it though.
I see Linux all over the place. From what I'm hearing here, there's no reason that *BSD couldn't be a big seller at CompUSA and Circuit City, too. It sure is getting some good press lately. Seems like you could target market FreeBSD as a more 'serious' Free OS, like Linux, but more 'mature'.
Is anybody taking a *BSD distro mass market like Red Hat and others are doing with Linux? Aside from BSDI, of course, but they have a different target market than the Red Hat's do.
How about commercial support? Will anybody other than BSDI contract commercial support for *BSD to you?
Is the existence of BSDI, so far ahead of any potential startup in the *BSD field, holding down the potential entries in this field?
Maybe BSDI should hit the shrink-wrapped distro market if nobody else does. If not them, maybe one of the Linux vendors could pick it up as a sideline. Seems like there would be obvious synergies for a Linux distro company if Linux and FreeBSD are the same in Userland as we've been hearing.
I feel that the system of splitting one partition table partition into several BSD-partitions actually enhances the chances of co-existence with other systems. The reason? You've only got four entries in the partition table. My favoured partitioning scheme would use three of three of them for file systems and one for swap. Yes, they _could_ go in an extended partition, but, in a sense, that's exactly what happens. It just isn't a Microsoft-style extended partition, which seems fair.
I very much enjoy the fact that my FreeBSD installation will never use more than one partition table entry, and find the system much more easy to use than the Linux way, once you've realised what's actually going on.
In Cramer's series on TCP/IP, I seem to recall an analysis done of the use of carrier pigeons to carry "information traffic" between an observatory in the mountains and a more normally "connected" site, and it didn't prove out as badly as one might expect. In the days when data-oriented communications infrastructure was a rarity, and cell phones out of "Dick Tracy," there were some creative answers.
I remember hearing the possibly-apocryphal tale that New Zealand's Usenet news feed was, for a time, fed via tapes that were flown in from Australia on a weekly basis.
Long and short is that I would be reluctant to underestimate the ingenuity of those that would do peculiar things with bandwidth in New Zealand...
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.