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melloe
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 Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2025 6:33 pm Post subject: FreeBSD 8.0- |
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FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE Announcement
The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE. This release starts off the new 8-STABLE branch which improves on the functionality of FreeBSD 7.X and introduces many new features. Some of the highlights:
* Xen Dom-U, VirtualBox guest and host, hierarchical jails.
* NFSv3 GSSAPI support, experimental NFSv4 client and server.
* 802.11s D3.03 wireless mesh networking and Virtual Access Point support.
*ZFS is no longer in experimental status.
*Ground-up rewrite of USB, including USB target support.
*Continued SMP scalability improvements in many areas, especially VFS.
* Revised network link layer subsystem.
*Experimental MIPS architecture support.
The press release contains more information on this relese.
For a complete list of new features and known problems, please see the online release notes and errata list available at: http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/8.0R/relnotes.html
http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/8.0R/errata.html
For more information about FreeBSD release engineering activities please see:
http://www.FreeBSD.org/releng/
http://www.freebsd.org/where.html
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mell0: 1. Kubuntu, XP, Sabayon 2. Mandriva,Mint, Mephis
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crouse
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jester
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| Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2025 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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| @crouse: any word on the 64-bit nvidia-driver availability?
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Arch64 :: Funtoo64 :: FreeBSD-8.0 :: OSX-10.4.11 (PPC)
Testing: Fedora12_x86-64 :: Ubuntu-10.04-LTS_x86-64
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platinummonkey
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melloe
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| Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2025 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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Jester wrote
| Quote: | | @crouse: any word on the 64-bit nvidia-driver availability? |
The first update, I got the nv driver. Don't know if it is stable or otherwise, but it seems to work OK.
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melloe
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| Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2025 11:35 pm Post subject: Latest BSD software releases |
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Rss feeds Latest releases
Doom3 1.3.1.1304
Quake4 Demo 1.0_1
Return To Castle Wolfenstein 1.41b_2
The Fish 0.6.6_3
Music Player Daemon 0.15
GMPC 0.19.0
Jag 0.2.6
JOSM 2255
GCC 4.5.0.20091112
Gretl 1.8.5
rekonq 0.3.0
Tor 0.2.1.20
Rhythmbox 0.12.5
Unreal2004 Demo 3334
Quake4 1.4.2
Doom3 Demo 1.1.1286_2
Mercurial 1.4
Americas Army 2.5.0_1
PBI Creator 6.0
QComicBook 0.4.4
also available via PBI for PC-BSD http://www.pbidir.com/
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JP
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melloe
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| Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2025 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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I test every new version of PC-BSD, and did do desktopBSD.
As for the BSD's in general...Other than losing some stuff on the logicals till I read the FAQ...
The last open was a club project and did manage finally to get up X. Free I do on occasion.
But the recent BSD desktop friendly ones have been quite good. I should note I gave up on firefly..can't remember why. Earlier ones ( desktop oriented version ) were often not other OS friendly boot loader wise. That, along with most other aspects, have improved on the desktop side. The software offereings are impressive. I have always heard that there is slower adoption of new hardware, but the only problem I have had has to do with external USB and eSATA storage in the past. that seems to have improved.
As I used older Novel and 2K server software, I have never attempted vanilla BSD on the server side.
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melloe
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2025 5:16 am Post subject: PC-BSD 8.0 Beta |
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NEW • Development Release: PC-BSD 8.0 Beta
PC-BSD Kris Moore has announced the availability of the first beta release of PC-BSD 8.0, a desktop operating system (with KDE) based on FreeBSD: "The PC-BSD team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 8.0-BETA, running FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE, and KDE 4.3.4. Version 8.0 contains a number of enhancements and improvements. Some of the notable changes are: brand new system installer, allows the install of PC-BSD or FreeBSD; run in live mode directly from DVD; updated software manager, allows browsing and installing applications directly; support for 3D acceleration with NVIDIA drivers on amd64. Version 8.0-BETA of PC-BSD is available for download from our mirrors. Also, our Pootle translation page has been updated with the latest strings." See the release announcement, http://www.pcbsd.org/content/view/138/
Download, changelog and release links in red at bottom of page
Download: http://www.pcbsd.org/content/view/137/11/
Or at www.diostrowatch.com
PCBSD8.0-BETA-x86-DVD.iso (3,269MB, MD5), PCBSD8.0-BETA-x64-DVD.iso (3,546MB, MD5).
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jester
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crouse
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2025 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Let me know how it goes, I have a 64 bit machine needing an OS and it's going to either be BSD or Solaris.
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Veronica - Arch Linux 64-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
Archie/Jughead - Arch Linux 32-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
Betty/Reggie - Arch Linux (VBox) 32-bit -- Kernel 2.6.33.4-1
BumbleBee - OpenSolaris-SunOS 5.11
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jester
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2025 5:11 am Post subject: |
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| crouse wrote: | | Let me know how it goes, I have a 64 bit machine needing an OS and it's going to either be BSD or Solaris. |
Posting from FreeBSD-8.0amd64 with nvidia working
The two threads below were helpful:
for nvidia tips
for linux compatibility
Need to fix fonts, keyboard map (this is a jp106), get sound working and then switch to openbox probably
For the curious, I don't use the chainload option in grub, the entry looks like this:
| Code: | root (hd2,2a)
kernel /boot/loader |
where hd2,2 is /dev/sdc3 - the 'a' is the root partition within the BSD slice: more info here
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jester
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2025 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I'm gradually getting there, but in the process I'm realizing how little I know compared to linux (and I wouldn't say I was a guru...):
- sound is done
- flash is done
- java is done
- fonts are done
- GNOME beautification is partly done
- system update is ongoing
- automounting of USB devices is yet to be tested
- keyboard is 'improved' but I think I will have to restart X (not while updating the system) for better evaluation
- OpenBox not installed yet (change of plans)
Impressively low use of 6GiB of RAM, swap untouched (as usual) - I know the *BSDs true forte is 'serving', but the same could have been said of linux 5 years ago, all in all shaping up to be a nice desktop
Found this link on the freebsd forums - this guy has written a number of guides for both desktop and server use and I've found them very interesting
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jester
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2025 10:42 am Post subject: |
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This'll be as much for me as for others:
Package Update Process:
| Code: | portsnap fetch update
portsdb -u
pkgdb -vu
portversion -v -l "<"
<Read /usr/ports/UPDATING to check for special instructions>
portupgrade -vaPP
portversion -v -l "<" |
The single biggest hitch I've encountered has been lack of support for mounting my HFS+ formatted iPod as I do in Arch / Funtoo, so I'm just dumping the music from my PowerBook straight into a Samba share on the FreeBSD box and then playing it with Banshee.
Other than that, FreeBSD does all I need it too - worth a look for those who don't mind getting under the hood to get some of the above-mentioned items working, otherwise I guess PC-BSD would give you that out of the box
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masinick
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2025 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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I have seen a couple of really good performance tests on Phoronix, and generally speaking, the BSD systems - I think one comparision was with FreeBSD, another was with PC-BSD, do pretty well on true server tasks, but neither of them match up that well overall against either a recent edition of Ubuntu or a recent edition of Fedora - and I do not consider either one of them to be the snappiest Linux systems out there.
A number of years ago now I was using a 400 MHz AMD desktop system just for testing, and I had trouble running KDE or GNOME on that box because of low memory and CPU speed, but XFCE 3 and IceWM would work. This particular box was good for exposing performance issues. I found that on that box I could boot to a command prompt with FreeBSD quickly, less than thirty seconds (quick for that old hardware), but GUI based stuff did not work well.
The only BSD I've done much with over the past five years is PC-BSD, and because most Linux boot loaders seem to have problems recognizing BSD file systems and s few won't even boot, I've only been able to test it when I have two disks available. My old Dell Dimension 4100 had two disks, but I've pretty much put it to rest. My USB disk drive brought me back to testing the BSDs and lots of unique images of many systems for a few months, but it was stolen back in November and I cannot afford to buy another one right now, so BSD testing is on hold for me.
I would still say that using BSD is more for those who know what they are doing and know how to tailor it to their needs. For such people, the BSDs are perhaps a bit more pristine than Linux overall. It is possible to create a good desktop with BSD, but I would maintain that is not its forte; it is work. I think that the general overall workload mix with a Linux kernel is easier to tame - you generally get a decent system by default with less tweaking. With the right tweaking, I think you can get comparable performance from either of them. Both have the core ingredients - but they may take a bit of hunting and tuning to perfect them to your needs. |
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when that comes... ill be one of those people crazy enough to try it 
