NetBSD Begins Its 11.0 Release Cycle, Readying the Latest Software for a Broad Array of Devices

Martin Husemann has announced the impending release of NetBSD 11.0, the latest version of the broadly-supported Unix-like operating system born out of the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) project — and it brings with it better RISC-V support and improved Linux emulation.

"If you have been following source-changes, you may have noticed the creation of the netbsd-11 branch," Husemann writes. "It comes with a lot of changes that we have been working on. Compatibility support code, like 32-bit on 64-bit machines, has been separated into special sets, to allow easy installation of machines that do not need to be able to run 32-bit code. Install media for some architectures has been split in small ('CD/R') images (w/o debug and compat[ibility] sets), and full ('DVD-R') sets. All mac68k and macppc ISO images are now bootable."

First released in 1993 after its founders, Chris Demetriou, Adam Glass, Charles Hannum, and Theo de Raadt, had grown discontent with 386BSD "Jolix," itself a port of the Berkeley Software Distribution to Intel's 386 and compatibles, NetBSD is best known for its broad compatibility — highlighted in the project's tagline, "of course it runs NetBSD." We've seen it used for everything from read-only Raspberry Pi gadgets to a Nintendo Wii-hosted web server, and that's only scratching the surface.

The upcoming NetBSD 11.0 brings with it improvements including better support for running on systems built around the free and open-source RISC-V architecture, various enhancements in the Linux emulation system, and a healthy array of bug fixes, while also updating its various upstream components to the latest available version. There's no loss in compatibility either: nightly beta-test images are available for platforms including but by no means limited to the Acorn RiscPC and A7000(+), any Commodore Amiga with Motorola 68020 or higher, the Atari Falcon, all models of BeBox, the Sega Dreamcast, DEC VAX systems, and more common devices including Intel and AMD processors, Arm chips, and 32-bit and 64-bit RISC-V machines.

"We try to test NetBSD as best as we can, but your testing can help to make NetBSD 11.0 a great release. Please test it and let us know of any bugs you find," Husemann asks. "No promises, but we will try to make this one of the shortest release cycles ever… Ideally we will be in release candidate state at EuroBSDCon late in September, and cut the final release early in October."

More information, including links to the beta test images, is available on the NetBSD blog.

Main article image courtesy of oshimaya.