So... What's Happened Since FreeBSD 4.0?

[SecretAsianMan]

I was a heavy user of FreeBSD until the 4.0 release. I even had a FREEBSD vanity plate on my car. Then life happened. Both college and my FreeBSD-related job ended. Sadly, my interest turned to other platforms. Now I'm coming back to FreeBSD, because I need some server capability for my small business venture.

So, uh, what has happened in FreeBSD over the last eight years?

If you can give just a few keywords which I can google for more information, that would be great. I'll be happy to compensate you with beer and/or sushi, if you live anywhere near the DFW or OKC areas.

 

[Brandybuck]

I essentially started with FreeBSD 4.0. What's changed? A heck of a lot!

I use FreeBSD as my primary desktop, and have never run a server. From my perspective, FreeBSD is significantly better on the desktop. I'm running KDE 4.3.5, and I get full compositing support, all the eyecandy, etc. Flash works great. Hardware support is much much better. Sound support is great. Unless you have bleeding-edge hardware, there's not much reason to settle for a lesser system like Linux. There's also softupdates and journaling support, better SMP, better port tools like portsnap, NetBSD style init, etc.

 

[fronclynne]

SMP, zfs(), UFS2.

Umm, USB is better (for the most part), wireless works, geom(8) is pretty excellent.

Let me think . . . perl is no longer part of base (and hooray for that). window(1) is in ports now, too.

Man, new since 4.0 . . . this is tough . . . uhh, rc.subr(8) as part of the new generation rc(8) imported from NetBSD. We have clang/llvm on the horizon. Do I get promo socks or a cold beer for winning, or is this just for the glory? Cos I'm gonna have to start digging if I really want to win here.

 

[DutchDaemon]

I guess you should read the Release Notes of all versions you missed here: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/index.html

 

[roddierod]

devfs That's a pretty big one.
I started with FreeBSD 3.x and that change and modular xorg were biggies.

 

[SirDice]

GIANT lock on the kernel is (mostly?) gone. Different scheduler SCHED_ULE. NFSv4 server and client.

 

[graudeejs]

I'm not 100% sure how long ago, as I've been using FreeBSD only since about 6.2, but you didn't mention FreeBSD amd64

 

[paean]

The number of ports has more than doubled. Linux compat is stable and sitting at f10.

 

[aragon]

Some others...

pf(4)
rcNG
bsnmpd(1)
[man=1M]dtrace[/man]
UFS_DIRHASH
In-kernel SMBFS/CIFS support
FAST_IPSEC and crypto(4)
ahci(4)
csup(1) (cvsup implementation in C)

FreeBSD is even better than it was, and I guess you'll be happy to know that you skipped possibly the bumpiest time in FreeBSD history... 5.x and 6.x. A lot has changed, but in keeping with POLA, a lot has remained the same too. I'm sure you'll be right at home again.

 

[SecretAsianMan]

Thanks, everyone. This is exactly what I needed: a starting point for JFGI.

Do I get promo socks or a cold beer for winning, or is this just for the glory? Cos I'm gonna have to start digging if I really want to win here.

If you're anywhere near me (DFW/OKC), the offer of beer and/or sushi stands.

The number of ports has more than doubled. Linux compat is stable and sitting at f10.

The ports tree and /usr/src were my favorite aspects of FreeBSD. We had an app store before it was cool.

FreeBSD is even better than it was, and I guess you'll be happy to know that you skipped possibly the bumpiest time in FreeBSD history... 5.x and 6.x. A lot has changed, but in keeping with POLA, a lot has remained the same too. I'm sure you'll be right at home again.

If it is all right to ask, what was bumpy during the 5.x/6.x days?

I assume POLA is the Principle of Least Astonishment. I don't recall that term being in use within the FreeBSD community back in the 3.x days. Not that it wasn't; I just don't remember it. That said, it certainly seems apropos. I'll add it to my JFGI queue.

 

[SecretAsianMan]

Also;

Is it just me, or did PHK rewrite the whole OS while I was away? :e

 

[chrcol]

umm 4 new major versions

 

[fronclynne]

Seriously, I love to drink

Also;

Is it just me, or did PHK rewrite the whole OS while I was away? :e

I would "rofl" this, but I'm a reserved man. It's beautiful though. And on the 16 anniversary of Bukowski buying the farm. I approve.

Oh, and I'll be north of OKC come mid May, I reckon. (Hutch, KS, to be frank, PM me, I'd love to get sauced with a fellow BSD freak)

 

[Nirbo]

If it is all right to ask, what was bumpy during the 5.x/6.x days?

IIRC, This was where SMP and the earlier removal of some of the giant locks were implemented and improved upon.

Essentially performance was sacrificed in the interest of superiour performance in the future.

When 7.x launched SMP and the GL removal were pretty damn great.

Although the Linuxulator updates and USB subsystem work in 7.x/8.x has been a couple of my favourite bits of recent work.