Two years have past since FreeBSD came out with a new version, but don’t think that the development has halted just because of this long period. Soon it’s time for the launch of FreeBSD 7.0 which offers ton of new things. According to tests performed by FreeBSD, the new version will beat Linux when it comes to multi-core systems.
The developers have polished pretty much every detail in the operating system since their last version. More than 18000 changes have been made and you’ll also find several new things.
According to the presentation the team behind FreeBSD has done, we see improvements in the file system, network, improved security, several programs for the uses, better tools for developers and the biggest new thing - a completely redone processor architecture.
Earlier, FreeBSD scaled very poorly ( Like every other BSD compared to Linux). The operating system wasn’t capable of increasing its performance with more processors and threads. Thanks to the new architecture this problem is now just a part of the past, FreeBSD is back in the game.
Graphs from FreeBSD indicate that the new architecture scales almost linearly as the number cores and threads used increases. The curve is almost straight.
FreeBSD also comes with the file system Zetta Byte Filesystem - something that will definitely make the Linux administrators green of envy.
Several drivers has found their way into FreeBSD. The case here is the same as in Linux, the majority of the drivers are for wireless hardware. 802.11 is now stable, Atheros, Intel’s circuits and more works automatically. WPA (Wifi Protected Access) is included.
You readers who want to use FreeBSD as a desktop can be happy as X.org 7.3, KDE 3.5.7 and Gnome 2.18.3 is included.
You can read more about the news in “Introducing FreeBSD 7.0″ (PDF File!).
You can download a beta of FreeBSD 7.0 through their ftp-archieve.
Source: linuxworld.idg.se
Leave a Reply