OpenBSD update improves hardware support

04 Nov 2008 13:10

Version 4.4 of the popular BSD descendant promises support for new hardware, upgrade process changes and new applications

The OpenBSD project has released version 4.4 of the popular descendant of the Unix-like Berkeley Software Distribution, the project's 25th release, featuring support for new hardware platforms, improved hardware support, upgrade process changes and new applications.

The distribution, released over the weekend, is available via FTP or by ordering a set of CDs, a distribution mechanism the project uses to help pay its costs.

OpenBSD has a focus on security and the project claims to have had only two remote security vulnerabilities in the default version over the project's more than 10-year history. Other areas the project concentrates on include portability, integrated cryptography and standardisation, according to OpenBSD.

"This is our 24th release on CD-ROM and 25th via FTP," said project leader Theo de Raadt, in a statement. "We remain proud of OpenBSD's record of more than 10 years with only two remote holes in the default install."

The operating system is a descendent of Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. OpenBSD is more directly related to NetBSD, from which it forked in 1995. OpenBSD is the second most popular BSD derivative among BSD users after FreeBSD, according to a survey by the BSD Certification Group.

The distribution includes better hardware support, including drivers for sensors; support for the Intel G33 and G35 chipsets; a new driver for Attansic L2 10/100 Ethernet devices; and additional ACPI support for IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad laptops and Asus laptops, such as the Eee PC.

Code clean-up includes an improved buffer cache subsystem that allows for better filesystem performance, and an improved implementation of the general-purpose memory allocator, malloc, the project said.

Software included with the new distribution includes Gcc 2.95.3, a secured version of Apache 1.3, OpenSSL 0.9.7j and Sendmail 8.14.3.

Following an OpenBSD tradition, developers also released a song a song, Trial of the BSD Knights, to accompany the distribution release. The song is an account of legal disputes between AT&T and BSD developers.

OpenBSD is on a six-month release cycle, with the previous release in May of this year.

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