FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#1

Post by Uncle_Sam » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 5:07 PM UTC

FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...
lists.freebsd.org

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#2

Post by SagelyGuru » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 6:15 PM UTC

This is great news, well done!

The existence of FreeBSD and other 'alternative' o/s and software in general is more valuable than it may appear at first sight.

I would draw an analogy between variety of software and variety of a genetic pool, from which innovation and adaptability spring.

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#3

Post by jedberg » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 6:16 PM UTC

The last version of BSD I used regularly was 3.2, and I've missed it since. Although, I've somewhat gotten my fix by installing via ports on MacOS.

Perhaps with this release, I'll try my hand at getting it to run on Ec2.

Alternatively, does anyone know of a good cheap vps that runs BSD?

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#4

Post by clarkevans » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 6:21 PM UTC

As of this year, I'm no longer a FreeBSD user. I've been a hold-out... finally converting over to Linux this year after years of denial. It was a very hard move for me.

The problem is that FreeBSD developers are still fighting wars of the 90's. By and large, with the welcome exception of Colin Percival (of http://www.tarsnap.com/ fame), they have not embraced virtualization. The only saving grace of FreeBSD is that it has adopted Sun's ZFS. This won't hold the fort for long though.

For BSD-on-EC2 see http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#5

Post by clarkevans » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 6:23 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #3

The last version of BSD I used regularly was 3.2, and I've missed it since. Although, I've somewhat gotten my fix by installing via ports on MacOS. Perhaps with this release, I'll try my hand at getting it to run on Ec2. Alternatively, does anyone know of a good cheap vps that runs BSD?

I think RootBSD is the Linode of the FreeBSD community.

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#6

Post by kennethv » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 6:42 PM UTC

clarkevans wrote: post #4

As of this year, I'm no longer a FreeBSD user. I've been a hold-out... finally converting over to Linux this year after years of denial. It was a very hard move for me. The problem is that FreeBSD developers are still fighting wars of the 90's. By and large, with the welcome exception of Colin Percival (of http://www.tarsnap.com/ fame), they have not embraced virtualization. The only saving grace of FreeBSD is that i…

http://wiki.freebsd.org/BHyVe looks promising.

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#7

Post by isocpprar » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 6:45 PM UTC

clarkevans wrote: post #4

As of this year, I'm no longer a FreeBSD user. I've been a hold-out... finally converting over to Linux this year after years of denial. It was a very hard move for me. The problem is that FreeBSD developers are still fighting wars of the 90's. By and large, with the welcome exception of Colin Percival (of http://www.tarsnap.com/ fame), they have not embraced virtualization. The only saving grace of FreeBSD is that i…

Have you ever used FreeBSD jails? I wish there was something as easy to use and flexible as that on Linux. The fact that each jail has minimal overhead and with dedupe on ZFS I can easily give every user their own "machine" while spending a lot less on hardware then a linux solution would require.

Having said that I also wish I could run FreeBSD on EC2 however I haven't put my money where my mouth is. I'm sure if you and many others wanted it badly enough you could sponsor development to fix any current issues. Also it would probably help if someone made a large business case to Amazon to ensure that things were targeted towards FreeBSD that would help too. (i.e. not needing an ext2 filesystem for the user provided kernel on micro instances, etc)

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#8

Post by DanBC » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 6:58 PM UTC

SagelyGuru wrote: post #2

This is great news, well done! The existence of FreeBSD and other 'alternative' o/s and software in general is more valuable than it may appear at first sight. I would draw an analogy between variety of software and variety of a genetic pool, from which innovation and adaptability spring.

...but some of those OSs (not necessarily talking about any of the BSDs here) are more like the Northern Hairy Nosed Wombats than a viable genetic pool.

(http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/11343/0)

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#9

Post by Someone » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 7:14 PM UTC

clarkevans wrote: post #4

As of this year, I'm no longer a FreeBSD user. I've been a hold-out... finally converting over to Linux this year after years of denial. It was a very hard move for me. The problem is that FreeBSD developers are still fighting wars of the 90's. By and large, with the welcome exception of Colin Percival (of http://www.tarsnap.com/ fame), they have not embraced virtualization. The only saving grace of FreeBSD is that i…

For those who, like me, wonder why FreeBSD should embrace visualization (what's wrong with a 80x24 tty?): from the answers, I think clarkevans meant to write "virtualization". Maybe his spelling checker 'improved' that word?

Re: FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available...

#10

Post by btw0 » Sun, Oct 23, 2011, 7:21 PM UTC

Fewer and fewer people are using FreeBSD, and it's starting to cause real problems. Bugs in ports can't get enough notice. Right now, `htop', an essential tool for me, has been malfunctioning for months:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=ports/159728

At the moment, the built-in GPU in newer CPU (core i3/i5/i7) simply doesn't work in FreeBSD, people have to buy discrete older cards for graphics. Yes, they are paying someone to work on the part in kernel which will make it possible to support these newer CPUs, but who knows when it will come.