NetBSD 11.0 Released with Transparent Security Disclosures
I am pleased to announce the release of NetBSD 11.0, which includes split ISO images for various media and specific instructions for ARM devices. Due to the surge in security issues driven by AI tools, we chose transparency over delay, releasing the system with known open vulnerabilities that will be addressed in the upcoming 11.1 update. We encourage users to test the installation and report any problems through our mailing lists or problem report system.
As you are probably aware, the number of security issues found or suspected everywhere has massively increased with the advent of AI tools.
- jballanc
When I was in graduate school, I was doing a lot of molecular dynamics simulations, but I did not have access to a lot of high-performance hardware. The math department had a 4-node Cray that was impossible to reserve time on, and the CS department had a 16-node Dell cluster that ran SGE and was decently reliable. When those resources ended up not being enough for my crazy array of tasks, I got resourceful and started gathering every single outdated CPU anyone anywhere on campus was getting rid of or had no use for, and built my own cluster in our lab. Before finishing my Ph.D. I had 12 SGI Indys, 8 PowerMac G3 6300s, 10 PowerMac G3 7600s, and 20+ Dell P3 towers in my "cluster".
NetBSD is the only thing that made that possible.
- haberman
I often wonder what the current status is of the BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD). Who uses them, who works on them, what is their motivation for doing so? How do they compare to Linux these days, in terms of size, feature set, security hardening, etc? Is their usage/development happening at a relatively constant level, or is it growing/shrinking?
- helterskelter
NetBSD is the only nix I've ever been able to use for novel (for me) tasks without consulting the internet for help; the design is so clean and the documentation complete that I never felt the need for outside help. I love the package management system. Definitely my desert island OS.
- cyberpunk
The release announcement has better details: https://www.netbsd.org/releases/formal-11/NetBSD-11.0.html
- Panino
From the linked release announcement:
> Improvements to the npf(7) firewall, including layer 2 and user/group filtering
That's a valuable, useful feature
> New MICROVM kernel for x86... it can boot in about 10 ms
That could open some doors, nice
There are some good hardware improvements too.
- jbs789
As someone reading this fresh, they are almost apologetic for a release with open issues. But presumably the release closes off many more than it creates. I could see any other author/org approaching the messaging very differently!
- sanxiyn
Congratulations to the first NetBSD release with RISC-V port!
- irusensei
> Improved support for vintage and misc. hardware: alpha evbppc hp300 hppa m68k mac68k macppc mips x68k
It is interesting to see that as Linux drops support for legacy computers NetBSD still welcomes them. This is a NetBSD thing as it's not so much for FreeBSD.
As of now NetBSD is probably the go-to operating system for vintage hardware.