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Posts tagged as “BSD”

FreeBSD, Variants Not Affected by Recent GNU Bug

By Larry Cafiero on February 18, 2016 |

News, Operating Systems and Security

FreeBSD, Variants Not Affected by Recent GNU BugBSD logo

Larry the BSD Guy

The glibc security vulnerability that Linux developers have been scrambling to patch does not affect *BSD.

Much has been made about a vulnerability in a function in the GNU C Library. And searching far and wide over the Internet, there was little — actually nothing — I could find regarding how this affected BSD variants.

However, you can rest easy, BSDers: Not our circus, not our monkeys.

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Dag-Erling Smørgrav, a FreeBSD developer since 1998 and a former FreeBSD Security Officer, writes in his blog that “neither FreeBSD itself nor native FreeBSD applications are affected.”

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Lumina Desktop Getting Ready for FreeBSD 11.0Lumina Desktop screenshot

Lumina Desktop Getting Ready for FreeBSD 11.0

By Larry Cafiero on February 11, 2016 |

Desktops and News

Larry the BSD Guy

The BSD licensed Lumina Desktop aims to release version 1.0 in July.

It appears the sun is rising on Lumina.

Ken Moore, the lead developer for the BSD-based Lumina Desktop Environment, announced that another step towards the release of a full-fledged desktop environment for BSD variants (and Linux distros, for that matter) has been achieved with the release of version 0.8.8 yesterday.

** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **

For those of you keeping score at home, the Lumina Desktop Environment — let’s just call it Lumina for short — is a lightweight, XDG-compliant, BSD-licensed desktop environment focusing on getting work done while minimizing system overhead. Specifically designed for PC-BSD and FreeBSD, it has also been ported to many other BSD variants and Linux distros. Lumina is based on the Qt graphical toolkit and the Fluxbox window manager, and uses a small number of X utilities for various tasks.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

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VIMAGE Coming Soon to FreeBSDFreeBSD logo

VIMAGE Coming Soon to FreeBSD

By Larry Cafiero on February 4, 2016 |

News and Operating Systems

Larry the BSD Guy

I have to confess that I am still tying up loose ends from SCALE14X — the expo doesn’t end when the doors close for those of us who work the show. However, one interesting development popped up on my BSD radar this week that bears mentioning.

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Ed Maste gives a detailed report on it in the FreeBSD Foundation’s newsletter, reporting that Bjoern Zeeb gets the nod for a project grant “to finalize and integrate the work done to make the VIMAGE network stack virtualization production ready.”

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

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BSD at SCALE 14x

By Larry Cafiero on January 28, 2016 |

Community and Operating Systems

Larry the BSD Guy

As I may have mentioned during the SCALE 14x coverage, one of the disadvantages of the glorious burden of working for a great event such as SCALE is that I don’t get out of the media room enough. The fact is, I can’t — herding the cats known as the tech media and processing various social media posts around the event keeps me in the room.

But I do get to go fix things occasionally, and that’s when I make the rounds on the expo floor.

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BSD had itself its own row of booths in the expanded expo hall — FreeBSD, the FreeBSD Foundation, and OpenBSD were all neighbors on the exhibit floor. As is common for all the conferences we attend, Dru Lavigne and I — she moreso than me — got to catch up on things, and I took the time to drop in on her “Doc Like and Egyptian” presentation (though, burdened with a radio, I was called away to put out a minor “fire,” rhetorically speaking, in the press room).

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

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SCALE 14X Thursday: New Morning in Pasadena

SCALE 14X Thursday: New Morning in Pasadena

By Larry Cafiero on January 21, 2016 |

Admin, Community, Distros, News and Operating Systems

SCALE 14X Thursday

Starting today, the Southern California Linux Expo — SCALE 14X in this year’s 14th annual iteration — moves from being hotel-based event busting at the seams to hold all the exhibitors and sessions to being a full-fledged, freewheeling convention center-based event with wide-open spaces and widespread talks.

The setup is done for today, with exhibitors readying their booths for the opening of the floor tomorrow after Cory Doctorow gives his Friday keynote. But let’s not get ahead of the story for Thursday.

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The schedule is posted online, if you’re at the event. If not, you can still follow along at the link.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

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BSD Is Ready for SCALE 14X

By Larry Cafiero on January 14, 2016 |

Community and Operating Systems

SCALE 14x

Larry the BSD Guy

First things first: Were I to give an award for Best Presentation Title for SCALE 14X, it would clearly go to iX Systems’ Community Manager (and all-around BSD documentation queen) Dru Lavigne for “Doc Like an Egyptian” — she wins hands down, without question. Dru speaks at SCALE on Saturday, Jan. 23, at 3 p.m.

Speaking of SCALE, the first-of-the-year Linux/FOSS event for 2016 starts next week on Thursday and runs through Sunday. Next to the Rose Bowl and the Tournament of Roses Parade, both of which took place on New Year’s Day, SCALE is the third largest event in Pasadena this month.

** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **

BSD variants and a BSD certification exam highlight the presence of the Unix family at SCALE.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

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FreeBSD Foundation Takes Right Steps

By Larry Cafiero on January 7, 2016 |

Community, Operating Systems and Politics

Larry the BSD Guy

First things first: I’m the new kid on the BSD block. While in the process of still figuring things out on PC-BSD — dang that Synaptics! — and finding a place to contribute in the community, I have no real handle on the nuances of the inner workings of the wider BSD community. To my self-promoting credit, I am a quick study and the learning curve is not as difficult as I imagined. On the whole, I like what I see in those contributing to BSD, especially in the way of eagerness to help new users.

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However, when Randi Harper decided to bail on participation in FreeBSD as she outlined in her blog, it raises the question, “Where have we seen this before?” Taking a step back, it raises the question, “Why does this keep happening in FOSS communities?”

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

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FOSS Force’s Hot Nine for 20152015 on FOSS Force

FOSS Force’s Hot Nine for 2015

By FOSS Force on January 4, 2016 |

Business, Distros, Media, Operating Systems and Web Apps

We’re going to pretend like we’re AM disc jockeys from the golden days of top 40 radio and countdown the top nine stories that appeared on FOSS Force last year. Along the way, we’ll offer a bit of commentary, and maybe remind you a time or two that things were much different way back in 2015.

** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **
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You Might’ve Noticed a Few Changes Around Here…FOSS Force fundraiser

You Might’ve Noticed a Few Changes Around Here…

By Christine Hall on December 31, 2015 |

Site News

If you’ve been visiting FOSS Force for a while, you might have noticed some changes around here. Nothing serious. We didn’t do anything drastic like change our layout or put our content up in twenty page slide shows or anything like that. But we’ve expanded, and I think, improved our content. We’re offering more coverage of FOSS than ever before, while also expanding into territories of free tech that lie outside the arena of software and Linux.

** If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **

FOSS Force beggingYou might have also noticed that the expansion began just after our May fundraising campaign in which you gave us $2,300 to improve our site. Thanks to you, we have been able to pay our writers — not much mind you, truthfully a small fraction of what they should be paid — which has been a key element to our improved coverage.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
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BSD: A Brief Look Back at 2015FreeBSD logo

BSD: A Brief Look Back at 2015

By Larry Cafiero on December 31, 2015 |

Operating Systems

Larry the BSD Guy

This is the time of year when we look back and go, “Wow. How did this all ever happen?” Or something to that effect. And after about a month of PC-BSD daily use, the verdict so far (subject to appeal) is overwhelmingly positive with a couple of bumps (e.g., someday I will turn off tap-to-click on my touchpad).

** If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **
Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate and is involved in several FOSS projects. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

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