FreeBSD Archive

Connecting to IPv6 With FreeBSD

  Submitted by John Gowin FreeBSD 5 Comments
Linux Orbit contributing author and FreeBSD user David LeCount shows you how to connect your FreeBSD system with the '6Bone': "The next generation Internet that uses this protocol is called the 6Bone, and it's accessible from the current Internet. Now you may ask, "What are the advantages of getting on this 6Bone?" Good question. Some people just want to get an early start on tomorrow's technology. Some enjoy having a new toy to play with. Some may like the idea of owning a huge subnet of IP addresses for free. You may already have had your reasons before clicking on the link to this tutorial. Whatever the case, if you're interested in trying out this new internet and you have a FreeBSD machine connected directly to the internet, keep reading."
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Understanding CVSup, Mounting, Ports and Init on FreeBSD

FreeBSD 25 Comments
Most tech savvy geeks can work their way through a FreeBSD install, even if they have no prior UNIX experience. However installing an OS and configuring an OS are two totally different things. This article is targeted towards anyone who might be wondering about FreeBSD, but doesn't know what to do with it after they install it. This isn't then end-all be-all of FreeBSD howto's. Just some of the simple stuff. Update: Some of the readers of OSNews have emailed me concerning corrections that need to be made in this article. Dig in (third page) for more.
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What FreeBSD Has in Stock For this Year

FreeBSD 6 Comments
From DaemonNews: "A new area of the FreeBSD web site has been created dedicated to release engineering. This new section contains information about future releases of FreeBSD, a specific schedule for the upcoming releases of FreeBSD 4.6 and 5.0, and more." According to the web site, FreeBSD 4.6 is scheduled for June 1st, while there will be two Developer Previews for FreeBSD 5, one at April 1st and a second one on 25th of June. The final version of FreeBSD 5.0 is expected at 20th of November.
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ClosedBSD – A FreeBSD and Firewall on a Floppy

FreeBSD 10 Comments
ClosedBSD is a firewall and network address translation utility which boots off of a single floppy disk, and requires no hard drive. ClosedBSD is based off of the FreeBSD kernel, and uses ipfw as it's native ruleset management system, and natd as it's network address translation utility. ClosedBSD also features an advanced ncurses based configuration manager (screenshots) which allows you to seamlessly configure your firewall ruleset using protocol filters, port forwarding, and network address translation mechanisms through a simple to use menu interface. DHCP is disabled for this beta release.
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FreeBSD December 2001 – January 2002 Status Report

FreeBSD 1 Comment
This bi-monthly report covers development activities on the FreeBSD Project for December 2001 and January 2002. A variety of accomplishments have been made over the last couple of months, including strong progress relating to the KSE project, which brings Scheduler Activations to the FreeBSD kernel, as well as less visible infrastructure projects such as improvements to the mount interface, PAM integration work, and translation efforts. Shortly following the deadline for this status report, the BSD Conference and FreeBSD Developer Summit were held, and will be covered in the next bi-monthly report at the end of March.
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BSD operating systems: A ZDNet Perspective

  Submitted by Robson FreeBSD 9 Comments
"There are many distributions of BSD, the most popular of which are OpenBSD, and BSD/OS. Similar to Linux, BSD is based on open source code and widely used for Web hosting. Often compared to Linux, noncommercial BSD operating systems generally have more liberal open source licenses, 10 years' more history, and many BSD proponents credit these operating systems with greater reliability and efficiency than Linux. But while Linux garners all the industry attention and sales, BSD is hidden from the spotlight." Someone could argue that FreeBSD is the most popular BSD these days, but in any case, you can read the article at ZDNet.
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FreeBSD Week: Migrating from Linux to FreeBSD

FreeBSD 58 Comments
By now, anyone who is even remotely related to an IT-type position has heard about Linux, and has most likely used it, if only to see what all the hype is about. However, GNU/Linux is not the only "free" Unix type OS available. FreeBSD and its cousins, NetBSD and OpenBSD are all offshoots of BSD UNIX, a commercial UNIX also known as Berkeley Software Distribution. This article will help you learn more about FreeBSD, its differences from Linux, and it will ease a potential migration process.
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FreeBSD Week: Book Review of “FreeBSD Unleashed”

FreeBSD 9 Comments
With more and more people migrating away from Microsoft's platforms, it's increasingly important for alternative operating systems to be well documented in order to attract and maintain new users. FreeBSD is already well documented; its on-line handbook is an extremely well detailed guide to the OS as a whole. But for the user new to FreeBSD, or even Unix as a whole, salvation may come in the form of SAMS' FreeBSD Unleashed by Michael Urban and Brian Tiemann.
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Jordan Hubbard Chat at #FreeBSD on OPN

FreeBSD 23 Comments
BSDVault.net has published the transcript of a Q&A chat with Jordan Hubbard, the prominent FreeBSD leader who also works for Apple's kernel team. The chat took place at the #freebsd IRC channel on the OPN server. In the very interesting chat, Jordan talks about MacOSX, BSD, SMPng and X11: "Well, I certainly have been using the X window system for a long time and have written a fair amount of software for it; for what it does, it rocks, but for what it doesn't do, it really sucks too. Don't even talk to me about font handling or printing. So I think that before you're going to see X really get some decent applications, you're going to have to finish the missing 5% of X, the part that was scheduled to take 90% of the time and so nobody got around to it. Plus, the whole UI war thing needs to end. Adobe is never going to port photoshop while nobody can answer "Which GUI environment is dominant and therefore recommended for use?" So I think X will probably remain the DOS of window systems. It is used for a lot longer than anyone predicted, deeply loved by its adherants who know how to do absolutely anything with it, ignored by the mainstream who will have moved on."
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FreeBSD Week: Introduction to FreeBSD

FreeBSD 22 Comments
The BSD family of operating systems date all the way back to the 1980s when AT&T owned the legal rights to the OS known generically as "Unix". During that time, the source code was licensed out to a few communities, each of which developed their own proprietary version. One of the versions was BSD-Unix, named after the University of Berkeley. Due to license agreements with AT&T when Berkley tried to release their BSD-Unix for free, AT&T sued. The outcome of that lawsuit was the creation of BSD/OS, which was basically AT&T/BSD Unix with the proprietary AT&T code removed. Later on the commercial BSD was branched into what is today FreeBSD. FreeBSD currently runs on the Intel and Alpha architectures, with ports to Arm, Itanium, PowerPC and Sparc on the works.
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Back to Beginnings for FreeBSD

FreeBSD 2 Comments
"Bob Bruce, founder of Walnut Creek CDROM--the company that in 1993 first published FreeBSD--will once again be in charge of the core FreeBSD business. That's because the current owner, Wind River Systems, announced Monday that it is selling off its assets related to FreeBSD, an open-source version of Unix. Bruce has also become CEO of FreeBSD Mall, the new name of Walnut Creek CDROM and one of the FreeBSD assets that Wind River has owned." This sounds like good news for FreeBSD, especially when announced only one week before the expected FreeBSD 4.5 release.
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