FreeBSD is a free and open source operating system descended from Unix. It was developed at the University of California at Berkeley and became a separate project in 1993. This modern operating system is scalable, offers high-performance, security, and advanced networking. It is used for personal workstations, Internet servers, embedded devices, routers, and firewalls. The FreeBSD ports collection includes popular software like Apache and Nginx web servers, GNOME, KDE, X.org, Python, Firefox and over 40,000 other ports. FreeBSD is comprised of hundreds of active committers, users, organizations, and companies large and small all from across the world working together to further the OS.
Check out the BSD Devroom on Sunday and visit the FreeBSD Stand to chat with FreeBSD Developers and other community members. The stand is a great place to learn more about the latest developments within the Project, find out how to get started with FreeBSD and get your most challenging questions answered. If you or your organization are looking to connect with other FreeBSD fans, folks in the stand can help. There’s a reason why companies like Netflix use FreeBSD. Take a minute to find out more about the stability and security of FreeBSD.
Since our last visit to FOSDEM, the FreeBSD Project has made strides in a number of areas and published two new releases, 12.3 and 13.0. The Project completed the transition to Git making it easier for folks to contribute. Considerable improvements were made in the LLDB (the LLVM/Clang debugger), the Linux compatibility layer, wireless drivers, kernel sanitization, the documentation system, and many other areas. There is now better ARM64 support for servers and embedded devices like Raspberry Pi. The Project switched to a new OpenZFS upstream that supports FreeBSD and Linux. The removal of obsolete GPL components has been completed along with many network stack improvements. Finally, there is a lot of new online content to help folks get started and ask questions about FreeBSD including: FreeBSD Office Hours, FreeBSD Fridays, and several developers have hosted twitch live streaming sessions.
No major releases are expected in 2022. Conservative improvements to the 13 branch will result in a 13.1 release and the 12.2 release will reach end-of-life in early 2022. Expect exciting additions and improvements in the main branch including improved laptop support with better wireless and graphics drivers, a long-awaited pkgbase update method, Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 support, more security mitigations, and bhyve hypervisor improvements.
From submitting bug fixes to working on the documentation, there are a lot of ways to contribute to FreeBSD. The FreeBSD Resources Page provides links to how-to guides, getting started videos, community blogs, and the above mentioned FreeBSD Office Hours and FreeBSD Fridays Series of Introductory talks.
The FreeBSD Journal, the voice of the FreeBSD Community and the BEST way to keep up with the latest releases and new developments in FreeBSD is openly available to everyone.
Check out the recent Contributing and Onboarding issue for more great information on getting started with FreeBSD.
The FreeBSD Foundation is a501(c)(3), US based, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the FreeBSD Project and community. The purpose of the Foundation is to sponsor software development work and fill gaps within the Project, support FreeBSD infrastructure, advocate for FreeBSD worldwide and serve as a legal entity for the Project. The Foundation is entirely supported by donations. If you’re a fan of FreeBSD please consider donating today!
Online / 5 & 6 February 2022
Generated at 2022-12-01 15:40:16.988926167 +0000 UTC m=+0.067471563
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