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Mapping the Journey – Episode 4: Interview with George Neville Neil, President of The FreeBSD Foundation

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Mapping the Journey, a podcast featuring those who are making strides in tech with stories seldom heard, interviews George Neville-Neil — known FreeBSD contributor and the current President of the FreeBSD Foundation. Follow the link for a full description of the podcast.

George Neville-Neil is a computer scientist, software engineer, and author. He is FreeBSD Core Team Member and President of The FreeBSD Foundation.

He is the co-author (with Marshall Kirk McKusick) of the textbook The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System.

He has coded and published several pieces of open source software, including work on the FreeBSD Operating System, Precision Time Protocol daemon, Conductor, Packet Construction Set and Packet Debugger. He also specializes in building High-speed, low-latency systems for customers in the financial services sector.

For the last 10 years Neville-Neil has served on ACM Queue’s magazine editorial board, where he developed the column Kode Vicious, which has been a regular feature in both Queue and Communications of the ACM for the last 10 years. He is also Editor in Chief at The FreeBSD Journal.

Original post: https://www.mappingthejourney.com/single-post/2017/07/06/Episode-4-Interview-with-George-Neville-Neil-President-of-FreeBSD

FreeBSD Foundation 2017 Project Proposal Solicitation

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The FreeBSD Foundation is offering grants and requesting project proposals in areas such as: improving security of FreeBSD and its applications, testing infrastructure and quality insurance, tools for supporting development within the community, improving FreeBSD’s out-of-box experience, ZFS, etc. Go on to their page for more information on how to apply.

The FreeBSD Foundation is soliciting the submission of proposals for work relating to any of the major subsystems or infrastructure within the FreeBSD operating system.

Key Dates

  • Call opens for proposal submissions: June 9, 2017
  • Proposal deadline: July 14, 2017
  • Announcement of accepted proposals: August 11, 2017

The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and building the FreeBSD Project worldwide.  One way the Foundation provides this support is by funding software development, including work performed by the Foundation’s permanent staff, and by providing development grants.

FreeBSD Foundation Proposal: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/blog/freebsd-foundation-2017-project-proposal-solicitation/

 

FreeBSD Development Projects Update (May 2017)

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For May 2017 (Summer), the FreeBSD Foundation began hiring co-op students from the University of Waterloo. The University of Waterloo is a pioneer and leader of co-op education. They chose CS students Siva Mahadevan and Guangyuan (Charlie) Yang for the summer project due to each of them creating their own Continuous Integration systems. Siva’s Tinderbox style dashboard view for the FreeBSD Jenkins Continuous Integration (Ci) system, which can be seen here: https://ci.freebsd.org/tinderbox/. Similarly. Charlie created a project investigating FreeBSD on the ARM-based BeagleBone Green. See the link below to read the entire report.

Original post: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/blog/may-2017-development-projects-update/

Michael Larabel of Phoronix reports that 64-bit inodes support is now available in FreeBSD via the ino64 project, according to a commit for FreeBSD 12.

This week FreeBSD has finally merged the fruits of the ino64 project: 64-bit inodes support.

While Linux and other operating systems (including DragonFlyBSD) have supported 64-bit inodes for data structures on file-systems, FreeBSD has been limited to 32-bit. But thanks to the work of many on the ino64 project, FreeBSD now has support for 64-bit inodes while retaining backwards compatibility.

Phoronix: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FreeBSD-64-bit-Inodes-ino64

Discussion: http://www.phoronix.com/forums/node/954302

National FreeBSD Day is June 19

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The FreeBSD Foundation has designated June 19 as National FreeBSD Day! On June 19, 1993, FreeBSD was chosen to be the name for this open-source operating system that is now widely used across the world. Read their post on how we can celebrate and promote FreeBSD.

We’re pleased to announce that June 19 has been declared National FreeBSD Day. Join us in honoring The FreeBSD Project’s pioneering legacy and continuing impact on technology.

What is FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an open-source operating system developed out of the University of California at Berkley in 1993. Used by billions of people around the globe, FreeBSD is used to teach operating system concepts in universities. Companies also develop products on FreeBSD, and universities use it as a research platform.

In fact, there’s a good chance you’re already using at least some code derived from FreeBSD in your everyday life. For example, if you stream movies via Netflix, chat with friends on WhatsApp, or play the latest PlayStation 4 game sensation, you’re already using FreeBSD.

As a pioneer in open-source technology, FreeBSD can be modified and redesigned to meet the needs of the user, free of charge within the guidelines of the license…

Official announcement: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/national-freebsd-day/

Promoting FreeBSD at Events

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The FreeBSD Foundation gives us some guidelines and ways to help promote the open source operating system at events, conferences, and trade shows around the world. Follow the link below for the full post.

Attending conferences is not only an excellent way to gain new skills and meet new collaborators, but it’s also an ideal place to spread the word about FreeBSD. Whether it’s giving a presentation or just talking to folks during the hallway track, you can help the community grow by engaging other conference attendees in the following ways:

Raise Awareness About the FreeBSD Project.

How:

  • Highlight the latest developments
  • What’s new in FreeBSD 11
    • arm64 work
    • Showcase the features that make it the OS of choice
  • Highlight the research platform aspect
  • Point interested parties to getting started locations
    • Foundation How to Guides: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/freebsd/how-to-guides/
    • Get Involved Brochure
    • FreeBSD Handbook
    • Digital Ocean tutorials
  • Talk about the welcoming community/ plentiful documentation
  • Mention how obtaining a FreeBSD skill set is a marketable job skill for students and job seekers
  • For desktop questions, mention TrueOS

Questions to Ask …

Original post: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/blog/promoting-freebsd-at-events/

BSDCam 2017 Travel Grant Application

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The FreeBSD Foundation has announced a travel grant for Cambridge Developers Summit — or BSDCam 2017. Check out their post on details on how to apply.

The Travel Grant Application for the 2017 FreeBSD Cambridge Developers Summit (BSDCam 2017) is now open. The Foundation can help you attend BSDCa 2017 through our travel grant program.  Travel grants are available to FreeBSD developers and advocates who need assistance with travel expenses for attending conferences related to FreeBSD development.  BSDCam applications are due on June 13, 2017. Find out more and apply today!

NOTE:  The FreeBSD Foundation Travel Grant Policy has been updated. Please carefully read the policy before applying.

Original post: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/blog/bsdcam-2017-travel-grant-application-now-open/

FreeBSD Foundation: April 2017 Development Projects Update

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The FreeBSD Foundation gives up an update on a project led by Edward Tomasz Napiera?. Edward was able to develop a USB mass storage target driver, utililizing FreeBSD CAM Target Layer (CTL) for the backend. Head over to the Foundation’s page below for a full description on the project.

FreeBSD USB Mass Storage Target Project Update

FreeBSD runs on many embedded boards that provide a USB target or USB On-the-Go (OTG) interface. This allows the embedded target to act as a USB device, and present one or more interfaces (USB device classes) to a USB host. That host could be running FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS, Windows, Android, or another operating system. USB device classes include audio input or output (e.g. headphones), mass storage (USB flash drives), human interface device (keyboards, mice), communications (Ethernet adapters), and many others.

FreeBSD Foundation April 2017 Dev Update: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/blog/april-2017-development-projects-update/

FreeBSD Foundation: Upcoming FreeBSD Events

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The FreeBSD Foundation has announced upcoming FreeBSD events occurring in the months of May and June. The events are LFNW, OSCON, Rootconf, FreeBSD Dev Summit, and BSDCan. As usual, the Foundation will be in attendance. Follow the link for the dates and descriptions for each show.

As we near the halfway point to 2017,  take a look at just some of the events the FreeBSD team will be participating in around the world. If you’re attending, please stop by to say hello, and see what we’ve been up to!

2017 LinuxFest Northwest
May 6-7, 2017
Bellingham, WA

Stop by the FreeBSD table at LinuxFest Northwest (LFNW), taking place May 6-7, 2017, in Bellingham, WA, USA. LFNW features presentations and exhibits on various F/OSS topics, as well as Linux distributions and applications. The event has something for everyone from the novice to the professional, and the hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on both days.

OSCON 2017
May 8-11, 2017
Austin, TX

….

Upcoming FreeBSD events: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/blog/upcoming-freebsd-events-2/

FOSSASIA 2017 Trip Report: Philip Paeps

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FreeBSD Foundation board member Philip Paeps was recently sponsored to attend FOSSASIA 2017 in Singapore. FOSSASIA is an annual open source conference which attracts up to 1000 attendees yearly. Read about his trip at the Foundation website below.

The Foundation kindly funded part of my travel from Tokyo to Singapore to attend FOSSASIA. I gave the “FreeBSD is not a Linux Distribution” presentation that Foundation board member, George Neville-Neil wrote for Open Source China in December. My presentation was well-attended, and I got a lot of good questions from the primarily Linux-oriented audience.

You can find a recording of my talk here.

Most of the conference program focused on Linux, blockchain, and other topics which don’t excite me all that much, however, some of the more interesting talks I attended included:

FOSSASIA 2017 Trip Report: https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/blog/fossasia-2017-trip-report-philip-paeps/

BSDCan 2017 Travel Grant Deadline: May 1

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The FreeBSD Foundation is offering travel grants to FreeBSD developers and advocates. Head on over to their website if you are interested in submitting an application.

Would you like to attend BSDCan 2017? The Foundation can help. Travel grants are available to FreeBSD developers and advocates who need assistance with travel expenses for attending conferences related to FreeBSD development. Please submit your application by 11:59PM MDT, Monday, May 1.  Read through the policies and apply here.