back to article FreeBSD version 8.0 lands

FreeBSD has released version 8.0 of its beefy Unix-like operating system. The outfit has published a long list of improvements and new features that have been added to the OS. Notable highlights in the latest release include binary compatibility with Fedora 10 Linux software and network stack virtualisation. Version 13 of the …

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  1. Jim Morrow
    FAIL

    FreeBSD: Unix-like? WTF?

    FreeBSD is not "Unix-like", Kelly. It *is* UNIX.

    The various BSDs -- FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD -- all share the same parentage. They are derived from the BSD4.4 release produced at the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1990s. Those UCB releases extended the original version of Unix from Bell Labs.

    1. Cazzo Enorme

      Unix branding

      Although the BSD's can claim a lineage back to the early variants of Unix, they cannot actually be called by that name because of the tortuous trademark and licensing of the Unix brand. So, to call them Unix-like is correct.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      @Jim - FreeBSD !== UNIX

      Just because FreeBSD originally based itself on BSD which itself was a bastard child of UNIX doesn't make FreeBSD === UNIX. Just as I'm not my great grandfather.

  2. Greem
    Stop

    Binary Compatibility

    ...with Fedora 10. The release which goes EOL next week. Useful!

    1. zanto
      Linux

      yeah usefull

      what a nice thought to start the weekend!

      for the record fc10 runs so well on my laptop, i'll be arsed if i going to upgrade soon.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Binary Compatability

    That means that the linux libraries packaged to provide a userland for the linux syscall emulator are fedora 10. They probably should've updated to ``11'', but then again it's not that big a deal: The commercial software that this is there to support also tends to lag. And you're quite free to update in the meantime. In fact, it isn't all that difficult provided the ports collection catches on. But then I used to run a FreeBSD shop, so maybe my experience just makes it seem easy.

    And yes, ``unix-like'' is the correct term. ``Unix'', nowadays, is a trademark and it costs a pretty penny to pass the tests and gain the right to get called ``unix''. Donate the dosh to FreeBSD and I'm sure they'll be happy to fix the oversight.

    Still and all, we could colloquially just call all of them ``unix'' and mean ``linux'' with it too, so we can drop that silly ``unix/linux'' you see popping up everywhere. Just as silly as ``C/C++'', which goes to zero as C goes to infinity. More nitpicking? What, this wasn't enough? Alright, it's ``4.4BSD'', not ``BSD4.4''. And the settlement agreed that there was no original at&t unix copyrighted file left after 4.4BSD-lite. The rest is left as an excercise.

  4. Svein Skogen
    Happy

    @Cazzo Enorme

    Look up "USL vs BSDi". The BSDs are Unix. ;)

    //Svein

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Hyper-V

    AAARRRGGGG! And it still won't work in Hyper-V, now instead of refusing to shutdown, it throws a kernel fault and won't boot!

    It would be nice if the FreeBSD team could fix this, afterall that's more likely than Microsoft SVVPing FreeBSD.

    1. phoenix
      WTF?

      Hyper V ?

      FreeBSD on windows is this a joke? 6 7 Ok on Citrix Zen.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Unix

    I completely agree with the couple of comments above.

    The projects may not be able to officially call themselves Unix, but that doesn't mean they're not!

    I hate all this *nix and unix-like crap - call a spade a spade - BSD is Unix. As is Solaris (ok - I know it's Sys V, but even so), AIX, etc.

    The only system I wouldn't call Unix is Linux and that's because it's such a muddled mess (Flame ON!), but event that is called something irritating like GNU/Linux. WTF??? Hey, Linux also makes use of BSD stuff so why not call it BSD/GNU/Linux? Then again, I'm sure the BSD projects wouldn't want to be associated with Linux in this way,

  7. Albert Gonzalez
    Pint

    Re:`C/C++'', which goes to zero as C goes to infinity

    Dear AC

    I'm so sorry to have to correct you.

    lim c/c++ when c -> infinite = 1

    and not 0

    Thank you very much, and have a nice weekend.

    1. :)
      Paris Hilton

      c++

      dear Albert i think AC is still right as what he sad was; c++ go to infinity as c stays as it is and we have number divided by infinity which is zero.

  8. Jamie Jones Silver badge

    nice summary

    A nice summary is here: http://www.evilcoder.org/2009/11/27/welcome-to-freebsd-8/

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Cazzo Enorme

    "Although the BSD's can claim a lineage back to the early variants of Unix, they cannot actually be called by that name because of the tortuous trademark and licensing of the Unix brand. So, to call them Unix-like is correct."

    If it's all about trademark wrangles then "correct" doesn't come into it. "Allowed by a bunch of lawyers" is more like it.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The naming is interesting

    But, personally I use UNIX for UNIX, and Unix for UNIX-like. Linux is a kernel not an operating system, once you realise that, then GNU/Linux makes more sense but easier to say Linux distro or Linux System. If you just say Linux and don't supply context then it is assumed you are talking about the Linux kernel.

    UNIX is very POSIX, and the BSDs are all quite UNIX-like, but Linux is part of the Unix family.

    See, that looks quite neat.

    There are a few books that use the Unix name, such as Unix Shell Programming and it would look a little daft to have UNIX-like scattered around there. Absolute BSD brings forth the UNIX-like idea, and the older books tend to use UNIX for UNIX.

    The history is actually quite illuminating, coming from MULTICS, UNIX was a one user stripped down version of it. So whilst it came from multi user, it actually was a single user operating system running on a PDP-7, and hence was actually called UNICS to mean a castrated MULTICS a pun on Eunuchs, the spelling was later changed to UNIX.

  11. kain preacher

    BSD = Unix

    "nowadays, is a trademark and it costs a pretty penny to pass the tests and gain the right to get called ``unix''. Donate the dosh to FreeBSD and I'm sure they'll be happy to fix the oversigh"

    Um since BSD contributes to the Unix code base, and since the last official release of UNIX is based of of UNIX , it is UNIX .

  12. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    @AC -HyperV

    No, sorry, you've lost me. Why would you want to use a good operating system with a microsoft product? Shirley that's defeating the object of using a decent OS in the first place.

  13. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
    Joke

    Re:`C/C++'', which goes to zero as C goes to infinity

    Actually, re: C / C++ :

    Division by zero is undefined behaviour, innit ? ;)

  14. /dev/me

    Unix-like or *nix

    NetBSD defines it such:

    If something looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, what is it?

    The answer, of course, depends on whether or not the name `duck' is a trademark! If it is, then the closest that something can get, without permission of the owner of the trademark, is `duck-like.'

  15. Disco-Legend-Zeke

    I think it was even "paid for"

    The big deal about BSDi was that it was a purchased license to develop and support the original UNIX code. When Microsoft needed to get on the Internet, they purchased code for the TCP/ip stack from BSD. That is why TRACERT looks so much like TRACEROUTE (or was it traceroute?)

    My screaming fast top of the line Pentiun 90 ran BSD i386. I recall spending about $700 for it!

    It supported about 8 simultaneous dialups, and the email and web hosting needs of 80 or so customers.

    When it was time to build new servers, we chose freeBSD, mostly because i already was familiar with the commands. I recall there were legal threats to larger companies using LINUX flavors, based on UNIX software patents. SCO was the most notorious, every lost SCO UNIX install cost them $7000.

    Of course the suits got it wrong.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      TCP/IP

      Actually they bought a STREAMS-based implementation from Spider Systems (though the Vista README.txt was the first to acknowledge it, by which time the stack had long been completely replaced by a BSD-derived one, though remnants of the sometimes quirky Spider utilities remain)

  16. scudderfish
    Happy

    C/C++

    C/C++ = 1 as it is using the postincrement operator

  17. foo_bar_baz

    @Disco-Legend-Zeke

    I don't think Microsoft paid anything. See the BSD licence.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They paid hommage

    as you must with a BSD license (there is an s in there somewhere by the way).

    Apart from a few comments, it is all a bit geeky and nerdy this thread, FreeBSD is for tech and not the support variety. Take your geekiness and nerdiness and off to Windows 7 and Ubuntu with you.

  19. El Pollito
    Thumb Up

    Upgraded okay

    I just upgraded from FreeBSD 7.2 and the upgrade went okay. It didn't tell me that I needed to uninstall the 'usblib' port and I had problems upgrading 'hal', but apart from that I'm pleased with it.

    Whatever anyone says FreeBSD *is* UNIX, unlike GNU/Linux. If you want to go down the whole 'modern BSD is a descendant of BSD4.3/4.4 which is a descendant of System V' path, Mac OS X is a bastardisation of FreeBSD, the Mach kernel and NextStep but Apple have the money to get it certified as 'proper' UNIX.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Unix-like"

    FreeBSD has a source code ancestry that can be traced back to Sixth Edition UNIX from 1975. Unlike Linux, which started off as UNIX reinvented badly, to paraphrase Henry Spencer.

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