Linked by Julian Djamil Fagir on Thu 14th Feb 2013 22:23 UTC
BSD (Berkely System
Distribution)
was a research operating system based on the
original AT&T Unix, developed by the University of Berkeley, California. It has
been Open Source right from the beginning, and after the university lost
interest in developing it further, several community projects started up (the
very first ones were NetBSD and FreeBSD in the early nineties) to continue
developing BSD. Anyway, Linux was born roughly at the same time, but a pending
lawsuit about copyright infringements prevented the BSD projects to become as
successful as Linux (though you could argue about the exact reasons).
Thread beginning with comment 552618
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2007-03-26
I have been using Linux since 2001. Every year or so I give BSD a test run. There is a lot to like but for me it just isn't there yet. Too many issues to resolve when trying to get everything working as a daily use machine. When it "just works" after installation like Linux Mint I will give it serious consideration. Here is hoping...
Which BSDs did you try?
Have you tried PC-BSD?
Ultimately though, there's more to an OS than whether your desktop does compositing out of the box.
Edited 2013-02-15 15:26 UTC
Member since:2008-09-11
When it "just works" after installation like Linux Mint I will give it serious consideration. Here is hoping...
If you want something where you just click next, next, next to install and will auto detect hardware and install necessary drivers and media codecs, you can give Pc-BSD a try. It is as user friendly as Linux Mint.
RE[2]: Keep getting better
by ewayte on Fri 15th Feb 2013 21:00
in reply to "RE: Keep getting better"
Member since:2010-07-15
Member since:2006-03-29
Unless the BSDs get a proper top-to-bottom binary package management working, they will be a OS just for techies and servers. They tried that with pkgng and ... well .... lets see if that works ... has not yet.
I run FreeBSD on several servers for lots of network packet analysis but run Linux and OS X on the laptop/desktop. Severs is great since I do not have to compile and install from ports a lot of packages so no broken ports on the core stuff. But won't trust that on the desktop.
Heres hoping to see FreeBSD on the desktop soon.
RE[2]: Keep getting better
by phoenix on Fri 15th Feb 2013 18:30
in reply to "RE: Keep getting better"
Member since:2005-07-11
2013 should be "the year of binary packages" for FreeBSD.
You can already upgrade the base OS via freebsd-update(8).
And the PKGng project will allow you to do binary upgrades of your 3rd-party software (aka ports) with the ease of Debian's apt-get. All the pieces are in place for 9.0 and 9.1, and PKGng is now the default on 10-CURRENT. All that's missing is for the package-building cluster to be brought back online to build binary packages on a regular basis. The cluster is being rebuilt due to the security incident last fall.
However, one can use ports-mgmt/poudriere to create their own package-building system, and use PKGng to manage everything on their own systems.
RE[2]: Keep getting better
by laffer1 on Fri 15th Feb 2013 23:54
in reply to "RE: Keep getting better"
Member since:2007-11-09
That's what we've been working on for some time in MidnightBSD. Our mport package management tools were covered in a BSD Magazine article if you're interested.
I'm planning on doing the 0.4 release with the package tools this year. You can actually use an early version in 0.3 as an option, but it doesn't have all the polish one would expect.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/15/13 23:03 UTC
"During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.More News »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2006-05-19
I have been using Linux since 2001. Every year or so I give BSD a test run. There is a lot to like but for me it just isn't there yet. Too many issues to resolve when trying to get everything working as a daily use machine. When it "just works" after installation like Linux Mint I will give it serious consideration. Here is hoping...