From the outer reaches of deep space to the miniscule nucleus of an atom, the developers of PC-BSD make it clear that the scope and possibilities of PC-BSD are endless. Following the release of the Hubble Edition, iXsystems eagerly announces the release of PC-BSD® 9.0: Isotope Edition.

PC-BSD is a stable, secure, and user-oriented desktop operating system based on FreeBSD. Kris Moore, founder and lead developer of the PC-BSD Project, states that “PC-BSD 9.0 marks an important step in the series. Users are now given the flexibility and power of running the desktop of their choice, fully integrated with the PC-BSD tool library and PBI package management system.”

At first glance, PC-BSD 9.0 Isotope Edition offers more available desktop choices. In this latest version, many open source Window managers (GNOME, LXDE, XFCE, and KDE) are fully supported. More users can run their preferred desktop while still being able to enjoy all the features and advantages that PC-BSD offers.

New enhancements have also been added, including an updated PBI (Push-Button Installer) system. PBIs are self-contained applications that allow users to easily install programs without deleting or overwriting important data. Isotope’s 8.x predecessor allowed users to easily download, install, and update applications. The new PBI system makes significant improvements by efficiently organizing PBI dependencies without unnecessary duplication.

As always, updating new versions of software will not interfere with previously working ones, and now disk space is also conserved. The new AppCafe, replacing the Software Manager, provides an easy way to obtain and manage applications from a graphical user interface, and works across all supported desktops.

“PC-BSD 9.0 has truly innovated the BSD world and proved to me that their system is easy for anybody to use, while still containing the core aspects of one of the most stable operating systems,” says Mark Shaw, Systems Administrator and Web Developer at Card’s Computers, Inc. “It really is a beautiful system and I love the AppCafe. This is probably one of the biggest achievements the PC-BSD team has made in making it easy for people to install software.”

PC-BSD 9.0 also includes full integration of ZFS v28 thanks to the FreeBSD® Project. ZFS (Zettabyte File System) is an open source 128-bit file system that provides triple-redundancy storage without a RAID controller, automatically restores corrupted files from redundancies, and allows users to incrementally back up a snapshot of the filesystem to a remote ZFS volume.

More new features offered include:

• Enhanced Life Preserver, which allows users to back up their system with greater ease.
• New Update Manager that automatically checks for updates.
• Ability to update to the next major point release without reinstalling.
• Control Panel configurations can now be saved across desktops.
• Touchscreen drivers are now available. Users can download, run, and operate PC-BSD without ever touching a keyboard.
• Wireless configuration profiles are added to the system; users can quickly view and connect to available connections.

“It has been a long time since I have been truly impressed with an operating system and PC-BSD just absolutely nailed it with PC-BSD 9.0 Isotope Edition. All of the rough corners from 8.0 Hubble Edition have been polished off, and the GUI is second to none. Installation is simple and flawless, and ZFS works beautifully. I can (and will) install 9.0 to a 3TB drive, and I am looking forward to finally having a dedicated PC-BSD system,” remarks Al Fairclough, a retired Photo Imaging Consultant.

For more information on PC-BSD, or to download the new PC-BSD 9.0 Isotope Edition, please visit http://pcbsd.org. It is also available for retail sale at http://www.freebsdmall.com on DVD.

About PC-BSD

PC-BSD is a fully functional, user-friendly desktop operating system based on FreeBSD. It runs on the latest FreeBSD version 9.0 with a desktop interface of the user’s choice and graphical system installer. Its PBI system, developed for PC-BSD and also available on FreeBSD, allows users to download and install their applications in a self-extracting and self-installing format.

About iXsystems, Inc.

iXsystems® is the all-around FreeBSD company that builds FreeBSD-certified servers and storage solutions, oversees FreeNAS development, and is the corporate sponsor of the PC-BSD Project. iXsystems is an employee-owned and operated, open source-centric, customer focused organization, dedicated to providing the highest quality built-to-order enterprise rackmount server solutions, pre-configured server appliances, and scalable storage solutions to our customers around the globe. More information about iXsystems is available on the web at http://www.iXsystems.com.

The C standard library (libc) is one of the most important parts of a UNIX system as most programs interact with the kernel through interfaces written in C.  Porting code between platforms with similar libc implementations is trivial and if something is supported by libc, higher-level languages can use it without being reimplemented.

Over time, the C language has slowly evolved to modern multicore systems, but there are still some places that are problematic. One of these is localization as  C began originally had no localization support. FreeBSD libc and Darwin libc (used by Mac OS X) are similar, making it much easier to port code from OS X to FreeBSD than from OS X to Linux. The libc used by OS X supports a set of extended locale functions (xlocale) that allow locale to be set on a per-thread basis.

Additionally, libc++, from the LLVM project, was originally developed on Darwin, so it uses xlocale for most of the C++ locale support.  The lack of this support is the primary obstacle to porting it to FreeBSD.

Once xlocale is supported in FreeBSD libc, we can port libc++ to FreeBSD, giving us an MIT-licensed C++11 standard library implementation.  This, in conjunction with Clang and libcxxrt, means that the entire C++ stack in FreeBSD will be free of any GNU code.  This leaves the linker as the only significant obstacle to a GPL-free FreeBSD 10.

The project will conclude the end of September 2011.

The FreeBSD Foundation

DIFFUSE (Distributed Firewall and Flow-shaper Using Statistical
Evidence) is an extension to the FreeBSD IPFW firewall subsystem
developed by CAIA <http://www.caia.swin.edu.au>. It allows IPFW to classify traffic based on
statistical properties of flows being observed in realtime, and
instantiate network actions across a distributed set of “action nodes”
for particular flows if required.

This project will tidy up and integrate the existing DIFFUSE prototype <http://www.caia.swin.edu.au/urp/diffuse>
into FreeBSD, and incorporate a number of important new
features. Integration of DIFFUSE into FreeBSD will increase FreeBSD’s
utility to designers and implementers of FreeBSD-based networking
infrastructure.

Network architects frequently require the ability to classify different
traffic types flowing across a network, typically using packet
inspection capabilities of base system tools such as ipfw and pf.
Traffic classification then enables the provision of customized service
levels to different traffic types (such as priority packet queuing and
forwarding, or allocation of specific bandwidth guarantees).

DIFFUSE uses machine learning techniques to enable robust and efficient
classification of IP traffic flows based on their unique statistical
properties in addition to traditional inspection of packet header or
payload contents. DIFFUSE also allows traffic classification to occur in
one place (e.g. in the core of a network) and trigger traffic shaping
and differentiation elsewhere (e.g. at the edges of a network). DIFFUSE
has applications in ISP, residential broadband and large corporate
network scenarios to name a few.

The project will conclude the end of October 2011.

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In order to attend you need register for the developer summit as well as by email for the session and be confirmed by the working group organizer. Follow the guidelines described on the main page or what you received by email. For questions or if in doubt ask the session chairs, Kris Moore and Dru Lavigne. There are about 25 seats.

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FreeBSD’s KAME-based reference implementation of IPv6 first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0, and can be found in a broad range of FreeBSD-derived commercial products. To date, IPv6 has been an optionally configured feature present in the default FreeBSD kernel; however, IPv6 configuration has implied configuration of IPv4. With much “IPv6-ready” application software relying on dual-stack behavior, broken IPv6 applications go unnoticed. Adding support for an IPv6 kernel without IPv4 will make FreeBSD and PC-BSD an ideal test and development platform for both open source and proprietary IPv6-aware application software.

“Narrowing down the code base to not rely on legacy IP will help us to identify OS and application components requiring improvement to work well in an IPv6 environment. This project will help to ensure a bright IPv6 future, as FreeBSD is used throughout the Internet: root name servers, storage appliances, routers, firewalls, TVs, desktop and mobile systems, and many of the world’s busiest web sites,” said Mr. Zeeb. FreeBSD Foundation director and FreeBSD core team member Robert Watson described the project as critical to the future of FreeBSD, “Bjoern’s work will not only improve the maturity of our IPv6 implementation, but also motivate improvement of applications used in million of deployed FreeBSD and FreeBSD-derived systems.” The project will also improve the quality and performance of FreeBSD’s IPv6 stack.

Bjoern Zeeb is a consultant based in Germany and has been an active FreeBSD committer since 2004. He is currently also a member of the FreeBSD Security and Release Engineering teams, and was recently awarded the Itojun Service Award for his work on IPv6 in FreeBSD.

The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the FreeBSD Project and community. The Foundation gratefully accepts donations from individuals and businesses, using them to fund and manage projects, sponsor FreeBSD events, Developer Summits and provide travel grants to FreeBSD developers. In addition, the Foundation represents the FreeBSD Project in executing contracts, license agreements, and other legal arrangements that require a recognized legal entity. The FreeBSD Foundation is entirely supported by donations. More information about The FreeBSD Foundation is available on the web at http://www.FreeBSDFoundation.org.

Today is the last day to submit your travel grant application for BSDCan 2010!

The FreeBSD Foundation will be providing a limited number of travel
grants to individuals requesting assistance. Please fill out and submit
the Travel Grant Request Application at by April 9, 2010 to apply for this grant.

How it works:

This program is open to FreeBSD developers of all sorts (kernel hackers,
documentation authors, bugbusters, system administrators, etc).  In some
cases we are also able to fund non-developers, such as active community
members and FreeBSD advocates.

(1) You request funding based on a realistic and economical estimate of
travel costs (economy airfare, trainfare, …), accommodations
(conference hotel and sharing a room), and registration or tutorial
fees.  If there are other sponsors willing to cover costs, such as your
employer or the conference, we prefer you talk to them first, as our
budget is limited.  We are happy to split costs with you or another
sponsor, such as just covering airfare or board.

If you are a speaker at the conference, we expect the conference to
cover your travel costs, and will most likely not approve your direct
request to us.

(2) We review your application and if approved, authorize you to seek
reimbursement up to a limit.  We consider several factors, including our
overall and per-event budgets, and (quite importantly) the benefit to
the community by funding your travel.

Most rejected applications are rejected because of an over-all limit on
travel budget for the event or year, due to unrealistic or uneconomical
costing, or because there is an unclear or unconvincing argument that
funding the applicant will directly benefit the FreeBSD Project.
Please take these points into consideration when writing your application.

(3) We reimburse costs based on actuals (receipts), and by check or bank
transfer. And, we do not cover your costs if you end up having to cancel
your trip. We require you to submit a report on your trip, which we may
show to current or potential sponsors, and may include in our
semi-annual newsletter.

There’s some flexibility in the mechanism, so talk to us if something
about the model doesn’t quite work for you or if you have any questions.
The travel grant program is one of the most effective ways we can
spend money to help support the FreeBSD Project, as it helps developers
get together in the same place at the same time, and helps advertise and
advocate FreeBSD in the larger community.

Thank You,

The FreeBSD Foundation