FreeBSD 7.0 Released
The BSD variant, FreeBSD, has just updated to version 7.0. According to announcements on the project’s website, performance and exploitation of multiple processor architectures have been greatly improved.
The developers point to internal benchmarks, which demonstrate an improvement of 350 percent in comparison to FreeBSD 6.0 at average load, and of around 1500% at high load levels. FreeBSD is also said to provide 15% better performance than the current Linux kernels (2.6.22 and 2.6.24). The distribution now uses a 1:1 Libthr threading model to process parallel requests by default. An improved ULE scheduler is also included, although it is not the default scheduler; this position is still held by the 4BSD scheduler.
With respect to filesystems FreeBSD now offers read-only support for XFS and experimental support for Sun’s scalable ZFS filesystem. Gjournal gives administrators the ability to add journaling to filesystems. The developers have also fixed some bugs relating to the Union FS virtual filesystem. On top of this, FreeBSD includes an experimental reference implementation of SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol), a connection-oriented transport protocol that serves as an alternative to TCP (specification in RFC 4960). In contrast to TCP, SCTP is held to be immune to Syn flooding and DoS attacks.
FreeBSD includes the KDE 3.5.8 and Gnome 2.20.2 desktops. It relies on X.org 7.3., includes GCC 4.2.1, and has improved support for developer boards with ARM architecture. You can download FreeBSD via an FTP server or the Bitorrent network. Links to both variants are available on the announce page.
Issue 172/2015
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
Old Vulnerabilities Are Kept Alive Through Bad Configuration
HP's annual Cyber Risk report offers a bleak look at the state of IT.
-
Linus Torvalds Announces Linux 4.0
But what do the big numbers really mean?
-
Microsoft Frees CoreCLR
.NET Core execution engine is the basis for cross-platform .NET implementations.
-
New Trojan Attacks Linux Servers
The Xnote trojan hides itself on the target system and will launch a variety of attacks on command.
-
Cisco Releases Annual Security Report
Spammers go low-volume, and 90% of IE browsers are unpatched.
-
Zero Day Exploits Target Flash
Adobe scrambles to release patches for vulnerable Flash Player.
-
Intel Unveils Compute Stick
Four-inch-long computer on a stick lets you boot a full Linux system from any HDMI display device.
-
Obama Proposes Personal Data Notification Law
New statute would require companies to report break-ins to consumers.
-
TGXf Project Warns of File Transfer through Screen Pixels
Weird data transfer technique avoids all standard security measures.
-
Industry Giants Announce a Fix for the Password Mess
FIDO alliance declares the beginning of the end for old-style login authentication.