OpenBSD 4.2 to Appear November 1
The free OpenBSD operating system will be released in line with its regular 6 month schedule November 1; CD presales are already in full sway.
The project has always emphasized the security aspect and proudly points out on the project website that there have been “Only two remote holes in the default install, in more than 10 years!”. On top of the numerous hardware platforms that the system already supports, such as x86, Mac, AMD64 and Zaurus, the developers have announced improved support for Sun’s UltraSparcIII-based servers in the new version.
The developers have mainly concentrated on improving system performance, reworking the network stack, and improving the OpenBSD packet filter, Pf, in the process. Other new feature include support for the FFS2 filesystem. FFS2 is based on the legacy FFS (Berkeley Fast Filesystem) and has been available on the FreeBSD and NetBSD distributions for a fair while. The move to FFS2 promises improved support for larger files and TeraByte-scale partitions. Software packages have also been updated and include OpenSSH 4.7, Gnome 2.18, KDE 3.5.7 and Koffice 1.6.3, OpenOffice.org 2.2.1, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6, PostgreSQL 8.2.4 and X.org 7.2.
The project regularly links its software releases with a political message to the developer community, which it wraps in cartoons and songs concerning its mascot, the Puffy the blowfish. The developers again levy criticism both against corporations such as Microsoft and Sun, and against the free operating systems Linux and FreeBSD. The current comic shows the Linux penguin stealing a map off the helpful blowfish in an underwater marathon, and heading off into the distance. The OpenBSD team explains the symbolism on the song text page: "Now rather than seeing us as friends who can cooperatively improve all codebases, we are seen as foes who oppose the GPL." The OpenBSD community sees the Free Software Foundation FSF and its “legal arm”, the Software Freedom Law Center SFLC, as the root cause of the disputes between free developers.
One of the bones of contention between free operating systems in the past few months was a call by the FreeBSD project leader, who took the release of GPLv3 as an opportunity to underline the benefits of BSD compared to Linux (see the separate news item here). OpenBSD developers had previously levied criticism against Linux developers in their OpenBSD 4.1 song. According to makers of OpenBSD, programmers should learn how to think more critically in the development marathon: "Run for yourself, not for their agenda.", they say.
Issue 268/2023
Buy this issue as a PDF
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
LibreOffice 7.5 has Arrived and is Loaded with New Features and Improvements
The favorite office suite of the Linux community has a new release that includes some visual refreshing and new features across all modules.
-
The Next Major Release of Elementary OS Has Arrived
It's been over a year since the developers of elementary OS released version 6.1 (Jólnir) but they've finally made their latest release (Horus) available with a renewed focus on the user.
-
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta Is Ready for Testing
The latest beta iteration of the KDE Plasma desktop is now available and includes some important additions and fixes.
-
Netrunner OS 23 Is Now Available
The latest version of this Linux distribution is now based on Debian Bullseye and is ready for installation and finally hits the KDE 5.20 branch of the desktop.
-
New Linux Distribution Built for Gamers
With a Gnome desktop that offers different layouts and a custom kernel, PikaOS is a great option for gamers of all types.
-
System76 Beefs Up Popular Pangolin Laptop
The darling of open-source-powered laptops and desktops will soon drop a new AMD Ryzen 7-powered version of their popular Pangolin laptop.
-
Nobara Project Is a Modified Version of Fedora with User-Friendly Fixes
If you're looking for a version of Fedora that includes third-party and proprietary packages, look no further than the Nobara Project.
-
Gnome 44 Now Has a Release Date
Gnome 44 will be officially released on March 22, 2023.
-
Nitrux 2.6 Available with Kernel 6.1 and a Major Change
The developers of Nitrux have officially released version 2.6 of their Linux distribution with plenty of new features to excite users.
-
Vanilla OS Initial Release Is Now Available
A stock GNOME experience with on-demand immutability finally sees its first production release.