Dear FreeBSD Community Member,
Welcome to the first Newsletter of 2022! It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of the first quarter of the year. We’ve been hard at work for the last 3 months moving forward with our technology roadmap, advocating for FreeBSD at online events around the world and working on the security team to make sure FreeBSD remains secure. In this issue, you’ll learn how we fared in 2021 with our year end Impact Report. You’ll also get updates on our funded software development projects and learn more about our acceptance into Google Summer of Code. This will be our 17th year participating in GSoC and we’re so glad to be back again. Finally, be sure to take a look at our fundraising update. Based on our work over the last few years and your continued support of FreeBSD, we’ve made some changes to our fundraising goals. 2022 is shaping up to be a very exciting year for the FreeBSD Foundation and with your help we look forward to continuing our support of the FreeBSD Project and Community.
Happy Reading!
Deb
Foundation Highlights
Work with FreeBSD in Google Summer of Code
The FreeBSD Project is excited to announce that we will again be serving as a mentoring organization in this year’s Google Summer of Code. If you’ve ever wanted to work with FreeBSD, take advantage of this amazing opportunity. Not just for students any more, Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a unique program where new contributors to open source, ages 18 and over, are paired with a mentor to introduce them to the open source community and provide guidance while they work on a real world open source project over the summer.
RAID-Z Expansion Feature for ZFS In the Home Stretch
The Foundation sponsored feature reflows existing data to rewrite it onto a new arrangement of disks thereby freeing space at the end of the logical RAID-Z group. The FreeBSD Foundation funded the project to ensure the completion and release of an easy-to-use and practical application. The project came in under budget despite delays caused by the pandemic. The feature was developed by Matthew Ahrens and is now completed but not yet integrated.
The FreeBSD Foundation Technology Team and grant recipients have been busy over the first 3 months of 2022. Take a look at the status of the latest development projects and see what’s coming later in the year. For more broad look at the Foundation’s plan for software development over the coming year, check out the Technology Roadmap.
Intel Wireless Driver Support and LinuxKPI 802.11 Compatibility Layer
The Foundation has been sponsoring Bjoern Zeeb to improve wireless support on FreeBSD. The goals of this project are two-fold. The first is to improve the mac80211 LinuxKPI compatibility code and the second is to add support for newer chipsets. This second goal is much more attainable given the work on the LinuxKPI compatibility code in that new (and suitably licensed) Linux drivers can be imported into FreeBSD without major modification.
The Foundation team worked diligently to grow and support the FreeBSD Project over the past year. In fact, 2021 turned out to be one of our most productive years to date. Take a look at all the ways the FreeBSD Foundation supported FreeBSD in 2021!
Jails were developed as a tool for system administrators to enhance the security of a FreeBSD system. Originally introduced in FreeBSD 4.0, jails continue to be an integral part of the development and progression of the FreeBSD operating system. This guide serves as an introduction to some basic jail example and how to set them up.
What’s Ahead for FreeBSD and the Foundation in 2022
As part of the FreeBSD Stand at FOSDEM 2022, the FreeBSD Foundation put together a few videos that discuss what’s ahead for the Project and Foundation in 2022. Check out the Project’s YouTube channel to see where we’re headed.
First I’d like to start by giving a shout out and a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has given us a financial contribution this year! We truly couldn’t do the work we do without your support. The FreeBSD Foundation is 100% funded by donations, and we are grateful for every dollar we receive.
Your financial support makes a huge impact on FreeBSD and its community. In fact, you are helping to make a difference in the greater good. Your contribution allows us to provide opportunities for folks to learn new skills, join a larger and welcoming community, and of course, contribute their own skills and experience to improving the world’s best operating system. FreeBSD offers unparalleled opportunities with no strings attached.
The January/February 2022 issue of the FreeBSD Journal is available! This issue is all about software and system management. Read about contributing to the FreeBSD ports collection, the CBSD Project, and more! Read the Journal
Why Choose FreeBSD
FreeBSD’s incredible security posture and updates, network performance, along with excellent IO and memory management make running this large, traffic heavy and mission critical application a much easier process. The operating system does a lot of the heavy lifting meaning my engineers can focus on product evolution rather than server maintenance.
– Jonathan Eastgate, Chief Technology Officer, simPRO
