Plans for NetBSD 5.0

[Alistair Crooks <agc%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Just a quick heads-up that, after an official "Freeze period",
NetBSD-current is almost at the stage where we can branch the
repository for 5.0.  We're aware that there are some bugs that need
fixing: 

        http://releng.netbsd.org/pr-list.html

but we're feature complete, and able to start the process off for
real.

In the dim and distant past, we used to encourage people to run
what was to become the release by switching current's sup server over
to provide sources from the branch.  These days, we distribute NetBSD
in a huge number of other ways; however, we'd still like to encourage
people to try out the sources from the branch, and the binaries that
releng provide, in order that we can make 5.0 the best version of
NetBSD ever. For getting sources by CVS, further information can be
found in:

        
http://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-fetch.html#chap-fetch-cvs-netbsd-current
        http://www.netbsd.org/mirrors/#anoncvs

whilst the binaries from the release engineering daily builds can be
downloaded directly:

        ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-5/
        http://www.netbsd.org/mirrors/

Much has changed since 4.0; some highlights are:

+ during the development of NetBSD 5.0, the kernel version was bumped
73 times.  The previous record was 29
+ there is a new kernel threading model which has better performance
than the previous implementation
+ we have introduced the file system journalling (WAPBL)
functionality, kindly donated by Wasabi Systems
+ much work has been done in the file system arena
+ the Xen port has updated to Xen 3.3, and has support for PAE domains
and amd64 domains (both dom0 and domU)
+ Xorg is now a part of our base system
+ providing multilib functionality (64bit platforms such as amd64 and
sparc64 can now compile and run 32bit binaries seamlessly)
+ almost every subsystem has been improved.
+ our contributed external software has moved to a new framework, so
as to make license issues clearer
+ many more device drivers are present in tree
+ all security-critical software is now compiled by default with stack
protection; this makes stack overflow and stack smashing attacks
more difficult to exploit
+ address space layout randomization is now supported on selected
platforms
+ NetBSD now supports creating position independent executables (PIE)
that can completely randomize the layout of stack, code, data, shared
library layout per executable invocation

So we'd really like to encourage you to help us out by running code
from the 5.0 branch, and to help us by shaking bugs out - send-pr is
our friend in this - any and all bug reports gratefully received.

With thanks for your help,
Alistair Crooks
For the core and release engineering teams,
The NetBSD Foundation