From ZFS support in makefs to experimental 16k page support on arm64 to lldb and wireguard improvements, the Foundation development staff and contractors had another busy year working to improve FreeBSD. From January 1, 2022 until mid-December 2022, 1114 of the 7575 commits to the src repository (about 15%) identify the FreeBSD Foundation as a sponsor. The raw commit data give a broad indication that the Foundation is dedicated to directly improving FreeBSD, however commit data only tell part of the story. Let’s review the Foundation’s role in FreeBSD development over the past year.

Yet another year is coming to an end and we’re taking a look back at how we advocated for FreeBSD over the past year. 2022 started with a bit of uncertainty,  but thankfully has ended with a bit of a return to “normal” whatever that means.  Through it all, the Foundation staff continued to work together to expand the ways to spread the word about FreeBSD. Take a look at what we’ve been doing for the past year.

FreeBSD’s desktop experience over the years definitely has had its ups and downs. Twenty or so years ago FreeBSD and Linux were mostly neck and neck in terms of desktop usability. Unfortunately, as time went on, FreeBSD did fall behind. The desktop experience became a lower priority. However, catch up eventually ensued and within the last 10 or so years, focusing on the desktop has increasingly become of greater importance for many members in the community. To help understand more about the Foundation’s work on the desktop experience, we sat down with Ed Maste, Senior Director of Technology. 

When sending out an article, blog post, or newsletter, we at the Foundation, always have a second (or third or fourth) pair of eyes to review it. Is the messaging working as intended? Does the structure make sense? Are we getting the point across? Software development work is no different. More often than not, other developers will come in and review and update work previously done by someone else. That second pair of eyes is invaluable. It allows for a different perspective and many times gets those pesky problems solved more quickly.  The FreeBSD Foundation often funds work in this very vein. We fund developers to take software that is running into issues and update it. Case in point, earlier this year, we funded work to update the FreeBSD Kernel WireGuard Port.

Wow, another year has flown by! Is it just me, or are the days/years flying by more quickly than ever? Like many of you, December is when I reflect over the past year. I had a few personal goals, some I met and some I didn’t, but it helps guide me with determining what I want to accomplish in the new year.  We do the same here at the Foundation. We start with lofty, but realistic goals. Lofty because there is so much we want to do to help the FreeBSD Project and community, but we are limited in what we can do because of the lack of resources. I like to think of us as a small, but mighty team of passionate FreeBSD supporters. If you haven’t yet, please take a look at what our team has accomplished over the past year throughout this newsletter.  

When discussing goals for the Foundation, one might argue that one of our most important goals revolves around fundraising. I have to agree with that. So, let’s talk about where we are with our fundraising efforts for 2022. 

The year 2022 was a busy and productive one for the FreeBSD Foundation. Continuous Integration (CI) and Quality Assurance (QA) is but one of many successful efforts the Foundation continues to support as a dedicated resource. We spoke with Li-Wen Hsu, one of the Foundation’s Software Engineers, to discuss his work on this project over the past year, and the plans he has for it this coming year.

Q:  Share with us please, some of what you have accomplished this year. Do help us understand both your accomplishments and the Foundation’s role in supporting this effort please.

Hsu: In 2022, we’re mainly doing two things, maintaining and extending the current continuous integration (CI) system, and working with the workflow group to build a more productive and streamline workflow for the developers and contributors by leveraging or reusing what we have in the current CI system.

We were thrilled to be part of the Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing Conference September 29-30, 2022 here in Boulder, Colorado!

Just a few years ago, we were gaining momentum on showcasing FreeBSD at women in computing conferences and university groups. But, that came to a standstill when Covid hit. We are now kickstarting that effort to attend more of these types of events, from meetups to celebration of women in computer conferences. So, I was thrilled when I saw the local Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing was taking place here in Boulder Colorado in September!