January 9, 2024

December 2023
Update – Part 2

Message from the Executive Director

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2024! I am sitting here amazed at how quickly 2023 flew by, but I’m also looking forward to kicking off the new year with rejuvenated energy to take on an exciting array of opportunities for FreeBSD. Our sole purpose is to support the FreeBSD Project and community, and if you are reading this, you are part of our amazing community!

Before you dive into this latest newsletter that reflects on what we did to support FreeBSD in 2023, I would like to share some of the areas we will focus on in 2024. We’ve set our sights high with some lofty goals, including:

Improving the desktop experience to make it easier for those wanting to use FreeBSD as their daily driver or even those who want to try out FreeBSD
Supporting specific features and technologies to ensure FreeBSD is the operating system of choice when organizations are looking at options
Increasing the visibility of FreeBSD to individuals and organizations, not only to inform them that FreeBSD is an option, but why they should choose FreeBSD.

I’d also like to express my gratitude to everyone in this remarkable community for their support and contributions. Whether you write code, produce informative and engaging FreeBSD videos on YouTube, improve the documentation, support our infrastructure, submit bug reports or fix bugs, provide answers on Reddit, give FreeBSD presentations, or represent FreeBSD at conferences, you are playing a crucial role in advancing FreeBSD. Thank you all.

Now grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and continue reading to see how we supported FreeBSD in 2023.

Deb

December 2023 Foundation Highlights – Part 2

2023 in Review: Advocacy

Yet another year is coming to an end and we’re taking a look back at how we advocated for FreeBSD in 2023. Highlights include a return to regularly attending in-person events, celebrating 30 years of FreeBSD, increasing the number of FreeBSD interns, and increasing our PR efforts. All of these efforts combined work towards the goal of increasing the visibility of FreeBSD to a broader audience.

Advocating for FreeBSD is a key part of the Foundation’s mission. We want to make sure FreeBSD is always part of the operating system conversation. Please take a minute to review FreeBSD Advocacy in 2023.

2023 in Review: Partnerships and Research

The FreeBSD Foundation’s Greg Wallace takes a look back on the nearly nine months he has been with the Foundation since joining in April, and reflects on the things he’s learned and the progress he’s made.

It is just so clearly in corporate users’ best interest to be involved upstream. Going into 2024, we are really motivated and excited to bring this message to as many companies as possible.

2023 in Review: Continuous Integration and Workflow Improvement

As part of our continued support of the FreeBSD Project, we have a full-time staff member dedicated to improving the Project’s continuous integration system and the test infrastructure. In 2023, we added more testing jobs for ARM64 architectures like testing with Kernel Address Sanitizer and building test for non-standard compilers like GCC 12 and 13.

2023 in Review: Software Development

It’s the time of year again to reflect back on the Foundation-sponsored FreeBSD development work. We do this for one key reason. Engaging with the community – developers, users, or anyone who values FreeBSD is essential. More engagement from a broader community simply makes us better. If you read through this piece and have suggestions, concerns, or any constructive feedback, please let us know. With motivations out of the way, let’s get to it. With over 15 contracted development projects begun or completed in 2023, we have a lot to tell you about

2023 in Review: Infrastructure

Among the myriad of ways the FreeBSD Foundation supports FreeBSD, helping to maintain the Project’s infrastructure is one of the most important. We work in conjunction with the cluster administration team to ensure they have the hardware they need to keep everything running smoothly.

In 2023, the FreeBSD Foundation ordered 15 new systems as part of a cluster refresh. The systems specifications were determined by the Cluster Administration team and consist of:

5 package builders
3 web servers
2 package mirrors
2 CI servers
2 firewall/router
1 admin bastion

Upcoming Events

State of Open Con 2024
February 6-7, 2024
London, UK

SCALE 21X
March 14-17, 2024
Pasadena, CA

All Events

FreeBSD Journal

The September/October 2023 issue of the FreeBSD Journal is here! This issue is all about Ports and Packages. Articles are now available in both HTML and PDF. Best of all? It’s Free!

Read the Journal

Why Choose FreeBSD

NetApp proudly uses FreeBSD as a core component of our ONTAP storage operating system. With FreeBSD, we are able to deliver high performance products with the reliability, security and supportability that our customers expect. As a part of the FreeBSD community, NetApp is able to collaborate with industry leading technology companies. The FreeBSD Foundation has done a great job of driving FreeBSD innovation and facilitating cross corporation and industry collaboration. Your continued success contributes to the successes of all users of FreeBSD. Thank you.

– Matt Hambrick, Director, ONTAP Engineering

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December 2023
Update – Part 2

Message from the Executive Director