3rd Quarterly NetBSD Status Report Published

jschauma writes "The third quarterly NetBSD status report has been published, covering the months July through September of 2004. Among many other things, this status report covers NetBSD version numbering scheme changes and of the upcoming release of NetBSD 2.0."

The logo?

[i_c_andrade]

I am eager to see the new logo, I hope it is remotely cool.

Re:The logo?

[hawicz]

eh, it's ok. (I've seen it, since I'm a NetBSD developer). The thing to remember is that we were not looking for a mascot so it isn't the same anthropomorphic style as other groups. (i.e. the linux penguin, or the openbsd blowfish)

BSDs

[brilinux]

NetBSD is the open flavour of the free BSDs that I have not tried out. I used FreeBSD quite a bit, and liked it, and I am using OpenBSD on my webserver, primarily because it has native AFS support (I am at CMU), and it does not seem as easy to upgrade or get up to date ports as FreeBSD. I am wondering how NetBSD is. I know the guy who is trying to port AFS to NetBSD and Kernel 2.6 in Linux, and he said that they are making progress. Is there a reason, other than curiosity, to use it? (The curiosity may win in the end anyway, I go through OSes pretty fast.) It seems like an interesting concept.

Re:BSDs

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a reason, other than curiosity, to use it?

If you have a lot of different computers (or other items with programmable hardware), with different architectures, and want to run one OS on most or all of them, then NetBSD is a solution to consider.

If you just have a bunch of IBM PC Compatible (x86) boxes of various ages, then you might as well stick with FreeBSD. But if you've also got an old VAX workstation, a Morotorola 68k SBC, and a Sun 3/80, then NetBSD is the way to go.

Another reason for you to consider, is if you could be of assistance testing the AFS port.

Of course curiosity is a valid reason, too.

Re:BSDs

[epseps]

1.6.2 works great on SPARC II (except the Mach64 driver doesn't work for Ultra5). I just installed it this past week.

Re:BSDs

[epseps]

NetBSD on x86 is good for cross compiling for other architectures.

pckgsrc is the equivelant of the ports directory under FreeBSD and is just as easy to keep up to date with.

A weakness of NetBSD is the amount of configuration needed to get it to work the way you want it too work, but I view this as a strength as well (I advise people wanting to learn Unix to install it for this reason).

Asside from those two reasons to isntall it on x86 the other good one is just curiousity. A person might end up finding

Internet2 Land Speed World Record

[Homology]

Once again a *BSD shows very publically that the *BSD model of development pays off :

NetBSD again sets Internet2 Land Speed World Record [netbsd.org]

Numbering Scheme

[mvdw]

From the article: The major version number will from now on be used to indicate a major release and the minor version number to indicate a minor release.

What the hell were they using these numbers for preiously??

Re:Numbering Scheme

[Brandybuck]

Ummm... just counting? That they said this implies that they were NOT using major numbers to mark a major release.

Re:Numbering Scheme

[abs0]

The minor number was used to indicate a new release:
1.0 -> 1.6, and the tiny number for a minor release
1.6 -> 1.6.1 -> 1.6.2

Re:Numbering Scheme

[kivaapina]

The major version number used to be 1 and the minor number used to indicate a major release. For example, 1.5 and 1.6 were major releases. There was also a third number that was used for fixing bugs, like service packs, 1.6.2 for example.

Re:WTF???

[Burb]

What exactly is your problem? The *BSD postings may not be much more than notifications of beta releases but that's pretty much par for the course here.

Re:WTF???

[R.Caley]

What the hell is going on with all the BSD postings on /.?

WHat, `all' two of them?

Re:WTF???

[festers]

No, there was a problem a few minutes ago, or at least what *looked* like a problem, when all of the front page stories where *BSD stories. For a second I thought it was a stupid joke, then I refreshed the front page and things went back to normal. Oh well, I guess they jumped the gun on the April 1 stuff...

Re:WTF???

[mark-t]

here [slashdot.org] here [slashdot.org] here [slashdot.org] here [slashdot.org] here [slashdot.org] here [slashdot.org] and here [slashdot.org]

That's seven, not two. And all of them are on the front-page as of my posting this.

Re:WTF???

[mark-t]

And now it's all back to normal... most peculiar.

I just noticed that the oldest of those stories is from 2 weeks ago... (and just for the record, I wasn't on bsd.slashdot.org)

Re:WTF???

[R.Caley]

That's seven,

Over 9 days. Hardly a flood.

And all of them are on the front-page as of my posting this.

Shock! The /. software fucked up. Imagine how amazed we all are that there are bugs in software. Oh me, oh my. What has the world come to! Next thing you know there will be bugs in Windows's image handling, and then where will we be!

New NetBSD logo thanks to google

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.netbsd.org/~hubertf/newlogo.png :D