Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 11:28:47 +0000 (GMT) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Sam=20Pikesley?= <samdavidpikesley@yahoo.co.uk> To: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org>, Johnson David <DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> Cc: Eric Anderson <anderson@centtech.com>, advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Companies awaiting 5.0 technology Message-ID: <20021204112847.48356.qmail@web14902.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <424B1D56-06EB-11D7-9371-000393863D48@freebsd.org>
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I was quite excited about 5.0 before. Having read this, I'm _really_ excited. Esp. about the encryption card support. The time has come to buy one of these http://openbrick.org/ --- Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org> wrote: > On Friday, November 8, 2002, at 06:54 PM, Johnson > David wrote: > [ ... list of features in 5.0 elided ... ] > > > As an ex-salesman recovered enough to admit it, > features are not > > "cool", > > benefits are. The above is a list of features. > Only a geek would find > > it > > sexy. We need a list of benefits. A feature is a > "what is it", a > > benefit is a > > "what it does for you." > > Here's a something I've been knocking around for the > past few days. > I'm more than happy to renounce ownership of this if > someone else cares > to give it the care and polish it needs. > > -------- 8< cut here 8< -------- 8< cut here 8< > -------- > > FreeBSD 5.0 Benefits > > So, what are the real benefits of FreeBSD 5.0? > That's going to depend > on what sort of a FreeBSD user you are. > > Administrator > > As an administrator, you'll benefit from the > increased security > features, providing a much finer grain of control > over access to the > system. The use of PAM across all the system > utilities for > authentication makes it much easier to (for example) > ensure that > everything authenticates against your LDAP or RADIUS > servers. The > "jail" subsystem, which allows you to run multiple > distinct operating > system environments on one host has been extended, > and can now support > per-jail secure levels, an important security > feature, particularly for > organisations providing co-hosting and co-location > services. > > Improvements to the disk system, such as snapshots > and background fsck, > mean that FreeBSD's has a faster start up time, and > it's possible to > take consistent backups of filesystems without > ensuring that they're > quiescent first, improving reliability. FreeBSD's > software RAID > support has been extended with the addition of the > RAIDFrame framework, > allowing you to build more reliable systems. > > The revamped SMP support means that you'll now get > more bang per buck > on multi-CPU systems, giving more power from your > existing hardware > investment. And if your systems do a lot of work > with encrypted data > (e.g., webservers supporting HTTPS) then you'll > benefit from the new > support for hardware crypto cards, which offload > most of the encryption > work to a separate dedicated processor. > > The new infrastructure for system start up scripts > means its even > easier to integrate your own startup services in to > the system, and > ensure that they start in the correct order, even as > other services are > added or removed. > > There have been numerous improvements to FreeBSD's > networking stack and > device drivers, including support for "zero copy", > which removes a key > bottleneck in network throughput. > > Developer > > If you use FreeBSD as your development platform then > you will benefit > from a host of new changes. > > C and C++ programmers will benefit from the updates > to the gcc compiler > and gdb debugger which ship with FreeBSD. These are > now based on gcc > 3.2.1 and gdb 5.2.1, incorporating updates and bug > fixes from the GNU > project. > > Perl programmers will benefit from the removal of > Perl from the base > FreeBSD system. Paradoxically this move makes it > easier to install and > maintain multiple versions of Perl, or Perl for > different > architectures, without being concerned that you > might be inadvertently > relying on the version of Perl shipped with FreeBSD. > Various versions > of the Perl interpreter are available in the FreeBSD > ports system. > > XXX -- need more developer benefits > > User > > As an end user the most visible change is probably > the increased > hardware support. It's now even more likely that > your USB devices will > work with FreeBSD out of the box, including PDAs > that use USB for data > synchronisation, such as the Handspring Visor. > Firewire devices are > now supported, as are Bluetooth, opening up a range > of third party > storage and networking products. > > If you're running FreeBSD on a laptop then the > Cardbus support is going > to be useful, as are the continued enhancements to > the ACPI system, > making it much more likely that FreeBSD will be able > to respond > appropriately when the CPU speed drops, or you > decide to suspend the > system. > > If multimedia is important to you then the work > that's gone in to > support Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) will > doubtless be useful, > as are the new audio drivers. And companies like > nVidia are now > realising the benefits of providing native FreeBSD > drivers for their > hardware. > > FreeBSD continues to support the KDE and GNOME > environments, as well as > a huge range of other window managers and supporting > tools, so you'll > benefit from all the work that's carried out by > those groups. > > If you run any applications that depend on the Linux > compatability > layer then you'll be pleased to know that the layer > (and the > emulators/linux_base port that uses it) have been > upgraded, and now > correspond with those included with Red Hat Linux > 7.1. > > XXX -- needs a snappy ending > > -------- 8< cut here 8< -------- 8< cut here 8< > -------- > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of > the message ===== FreeBSD: It Just Works __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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