Ken Smith announced the official release of FreeBSD 4.11 [forum]. He noted, "since FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE in May 2004 [story] we have made conservative updates to a number of software programs in the base system, dealt with known security issues, and made many bugfixes." Complete details can be found in the 4.11 release notes.
Ken went on to note that this is expected to be the last 4.x FreeBSD release, as most developers are now focused on the 5.x baseline. However, 4.11 will continue to be maintained as an Errata Branch [story], receiving security fixes and other well-tested fixes to basic functionality. Read on for the full release announcement, including complete details on how to obtain the latest version for the i386 and alpha architectures.
From: Ken Smith [email blocked]
To: freebsd-announce
Subject: [FreeBSD-Announce] FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE is now available
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 12:02:10 -0500
The Release Engineering Team is happy to announce the availability
of FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE, the latest release of the FreeBSD Legacy
development branch. Since FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE in May 2004 we have
made conservative updates to a number of software programs in the base
system, dealt with known security issues, and made many bugfixes.
For a complete list of new features, known problems, and late-breaking
news, please see the release notes and errata list, available here:
http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/4.11R/relnotes.html
http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/4.11R/errata.html
FreeBSD 4.11 will become an "Errata Branch". In addition to Security
fixes other well-tested fixes to basic functionality will be committed
to the RELENG_4_11 branch after the release. Both Security Advisories
and Errata Notices are announced on the [email blocked]
mailing list.
This is expected to be the last release from the RELENG_4 branch. Most
of the Developers are now focused on the RELENG_5 branch, or on the cutting
edge development in HEAD.
For more information about FreeBSD release engineering activities,
please see:
http://www.FreeBSD.org/releng/
Availability
------------
FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE supports the i386 and alpha architectures and can
be installed directly over the net, using bootable media, or copied to a
local NFS/FTP server. Distributions for both architectures are available
now.
Please continue to support the FreeBSD Project by purchasing media
from one of our supporting vendors. The following companies will be
offering FreeBSD 4.11 based products:
FreeBSD Mall, Inc. http://www.freebsdmall.com/
Daemonnews, Inc. http://www.bsdmall.com/freebsd1.html
If you can not afford FreeBSD on media, are impatient, or just want to
use it for evangelism purposes, then by all means download the ISO
images. We can not promise that all the mirror sites will carry the
larger ISO images. At the time of this announcement they are available
from the following sites. MD5 checksums for the release images are included
at the bottom of this message.
Bittorrent
----------
As with the 5.3 release we are experimenting with Bittorrent. A collection
of trackers for the release ISO images is available at
http://people.freebsd.org/~kensmith/4.11-torrent/
FTP
---
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp2.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp3.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp5.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp11.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.at.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.au.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp2.ca.FreeBSD.org/
ftp://ftp2.ch.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.cz.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp2.de.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.ee.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.es.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.fi.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.fr.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp2.ie.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.is.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.jp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp8.jp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.kr.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.lt.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.nl.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.no.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp5.pl.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp3.ru.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.se.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.sg.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.si.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.sk.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp2.tw.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp6.tw.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.uk.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp6.us.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp10.us.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
FreeBSD is also available via anonymous FTP from mirror sites in the
following countries and territories: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil,
Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia,
South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine,
United Kingdom, and the United States.
Before trying the central FTP site, please check your regional
mirror(s) first by going to:
ftp://ftp.<yourdomain>.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD
Any additional mirror sites will be labeled ftp2, ftp3 and so on.
More information about FreeBSD mirror sites and the current list of
all active mirror sites can be found at:
http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html
For instructions on installing FreeBSD, please see Chapter 2 of The
FreeBSD Handbook. It provides a complete installation walk-through
for users new to FreeBSD, and can be found online at:
http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install.html
Acknowledgments
---------------
The FreeBSD Developers deserve the most thanks. Without their efforts
FreeBSD would not exist.
Many companies donated equipment, network access, or man-hours to
finance the release engineering activities for FreeBSD 4.11 including
The FreeBSD Mall, Hewlett Packard, Yahoo!, Sentex Communications, and
NTT/Verio.
The release engineering team for 4.11-RELEASE includes:
Scott Long [email blocked] Release Engineering
Robert Watson [email blocked] Release Engineering,
Security
John Baldwin [email blocked] Release Engineering
Ken Smith [email blocked] Release Engineering,
I386 Release Building,
Mirror Site Coordination
Hiroki Sato [email blocked] Release Engineering,
Documentation
Wilko Bulte [email blocked] Alpha Release Building
Kris Kennaway [email blocked] Package Building
Joe Marcus Clarke [email blocked] Package Building
Jacques A. Vidrine [email blocked] Security Officer
Paul Saab [email blocked] Bittorrent Coordination
A few people put in more than their fair share of last-minute work. This
includes Alexander Leidinger [email blocked] who did a lot of work
on the linux_base-8 package integration, and Kris Kennaway [email blocked]
who did a lot of package rebuilding thanks to a few recent security issues
in some key packages.
CD Image Checksums
------------------
For Alpha:
MD5 (4.11-RELEASE-alpha-disc1-gnome.iso) = 3f0f49a9c7067f398ca0b47fd21234eb
MD5 (4.11-RELEASE-alpha-disc1-kde.iso) = b4c83df8e979741c7972f379154360aa
MD5 (4.11-RELEASE-alpha-disc2.iso) = 8fd241bab99fed226ef71184ed0b0b38
MD5 (4.11-RELEASE-alpha-miniinst.iso) = 3280b9e34fd26db7ce0dd24f1a05e7b4
For i386:
MD5 (4.11-RELEASE-i386-disc1-gnome.iso) = 80c6b06b83432efc6cbe1cff3ebd893f
MD5 (4.11-RELEASE-i386-disc1-kde.iso) = 84921fe6b6b4bfd3f7011788985d34e2
MD5 (4.11-RELEASE-i386-disc2.iso) = 73553999f9f8e2e49222ba14e8ecbde5
MD5 (4.11-RELEASE-i386-miniinst.iso) = 28b006bcdf5df8b8b7e8f1831085cdae
-ken
EOL FBSD 4
Looks like it's time to choose - either 5-series FreeBSD, or Dragonfly.
Personally I've been pretty happy with the 5-series, tho' it has had it's less-than-glorious moments :)
Anyway, keep up the good work, FreeBSD team :)
Well I prefer DragonFly , DF
Well I prefer DragonFly , DF and 5-series FreeBSD are going in different directions but DF has more innovation
---
Agenzie Investigative
of course it does.
Of course DF will have more innovation, it has changed course by several degrees, where as FreeBSD is staying on course. For that reason FreeBSD has less perceived innovation.
I'm sure DF is/will be very very cool, but all the DF advocate trolls turns me right off the whole project. They do more damage for the fly than good! Or perhaps they are FreeBSD zealots playing the reverse psych card!
Leave religion out of technology ;)
I've been with 5.x since the
I've been with 5.x since the beginning and I love it. When compared to Linux, I think 4.x -> 5.x jump was something like coming form Linux 2.2.x to 2.6.x.
Freebsd 5.x easily beats linu
Freebsd 5.x easily beats linux but there are some very annoying issues.
1) USB keyboard support is borked
2) There is only -CURRENT for ports
3) acpi suspend/resume are still borked on my laptop
#2 makes freebsd totally unuseable as a server and fairly obnoxious for a workstation. What if I want security fixes but don't want to deal with a full cvsup and the inevitable breakage of something? OpenBSD gets a stable ports twice a year (which makes it lag less than Debian Linux but is still behind) and NetBSD creates stable ports quarterly. Why does FreeBSD not believe in this model?
#1 is just sad. Linux, netbsd, openbsd, mac, and hell even windows sorted this out forever. The freebsd lists continue to debate whether a multiplexing device for keyboards (like we do for mice) is a good idea and there is no action.
#3 Just makes me want to forget having anything besides an OS X laptop.
OS X
#3 also reminds me, that it's the FreeBSD (tho' modified) kernel running OS X :)
Nope
OS X does NOT have FreeBSD-kernel. AFAIK, it has FreeBSD userland tools.
MacOS X = BSD
No? Take a look at this page:
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/darwin/contributors.html
It says, that the userland tools come from NetBSD, and they use Free's kernel as a reference to theirs.
its uses Mach based kernel
its uses Mach based kernel
yes, but that doesn't mean it
yes, but that doesn't mean it doesn't use freebsd kernel code too. all you have to do is click on the link, says so right there. or you could download darwin, fire up a text editor, and notice "hey wow, this file looks a lot like a file i saw in freebsd one time."
Let me ask you
Where exactly does it say there that they use FreeBSD-kernel? they do say that it's their "reference platform", but that does not mean that they use FreeBSD-kernel. AFAIK, OS X kernel is quite different from FreeBSD.
If you want more info regarding the OS X kernel, look here:
http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/arch_xnu.html
Actually the os x kernel took
Actually the os x kernel took parts from mach AND freebsd.
I've been using Linux since '
I've been using Linux since '96, now I'm trying FreeBSD 5.3 and must tell you that I really like, it's very well organized, doesn't start thousand of services like almost any Linux distro does, and has the best firewall I've ever seen, PF from OpenBSD (iptables syntax sucks!! I'd love to see a radical change in Linux, maybe porting PF ;) )
The only trouble I've encountered is that I can't make work my USB webcam (ov511+ based) with vid... and I really need it.
ok, enough linux bashing.
erm, most modern linux distros don't start that many services these days. Maybe in the past this would be different, but Linux is becoming more secure.
Anyways, What will keep me to Linux in the forseeable future.
(A) ALSA
(B) Better Hardware Support
(C) Support for XFS
(D) Scalability/Speed.
Personally I prefer Linux as
Personally I prefer Linux as a desktop and BSD as a server. Linux moves forward with a great speed, so most of the modern gadgets from web cameras to latest 3d cards work perfectly. Then again there's lots of trouble with kernel holes, even with patched kernels, so I've started to prefer BSDs in server environment.
Linux has scalability, a ofte
Linux has scalability, a often performs better than its BSD counterparts, because Linux is more active in development doesnt mean its less stable.
Well it doesn't necessarily m
Well it doesn't necessarily mean that, but several years of use have proven otherwise :)
FBSD 4 Errata Branch
If it is going to become an Errata branch, that means FBSD4_11 will continue to recieve critical security updates and well tested userland updates.
I have one machine that is merely a firewall/NATd gateway. I don't see a reason to upgrade. The machine is not likely to recieve new hardware. I'm just saying.. some people may not need to upgrade to 5 or above until either said machine recieves new hardware, has new software requirements, or FBSD gets a true EOL in the form of being removed from the Errata branch.
Sometimes the bleeding edge just leaves you bleeding and wishing you hadn't upgraded. Not often... but it does happen. Handle with care.
I dont wanna switch
I loved the 2 series. But as support for it dropped off the face of the planet, I moved to 3 in like 99 or so. I moved, kicking and screaming, with tears in my eyes. I was not a happy camper. They decided to change so much and ditch the older stuff. The same thing happened with the 4 series. I like how nitty gritty 2 was. I liked how it only used very proven stable design. I know people had been working on 5 since . . . I don't know . . . like 1998 or something like that - but I still do not like it. When I booted it up the first time (when I decided to try it) and saw the ascii art daemon, I think it was the Will of Allah that I throw my Unix box out the window (to quote UHH). It went downhill from there. I don't know . . . I just dislike the approach - I think it's sloppy software engineering. But then again, the 1970's era philosophies of how to write code are painfully and surely on their way to death and being replaced by this notion that high level machine languages shouldn't be written for machines, but for humans. Replaced with the idea of "Well, everyone has like 128MB of RAM at least - who cares?" or with the idea of "Wouldn't it be cool if ..." instead of "Wouldn't it be extreamly practical and well intentioned if ...". I guess its what you get when you get a bunch of uninformed contributors. C programmers that don't know a 3270 from a 5250 or what GOMS analysis is or anything outside some 2 year undergrad education at their local school of engineering . . . oh well *rants rants rants some more . . .
I dont wanna switch
Indeed. How dare they use unproven technologies like ASCII art!
True, no security holes have been discovered in ascii art so far. But it's only a matter of time!