A running description of activity related to DragonFly BSD.
Matthew Dillon described the state of his distributed filesystem, saying a simple version should be up and runnable by next week, with actual clusters (meaning multiple disk blocks, not separate systems) supported some time after.
Also, the next regular 6-month release (2.0!) will probably be pushed out a little to mid-January 2008, so the release isn’t happening at the same time as everyone’s holiday plans.
Nuno Antunes has posted his latest version of a netgraph upgrade; he’s looking for feedback and ideas. Interestingly, he included a virtual kernel config so his changes can be tested without interfering with normal system operation.
Alexander Orlov has written a wiki page on kernel module development. Please contribute if you’ve been through the same process.
After a short hiatus, BSDTalk is back with an interview of Joerg Sonnenberger, a developer for DragonFly and pkgsrc, etc., etc. (Add to that list if you’re reading, Joerg).
The source code to MULTICS, the ‘predecessor’ on which the UNIX named is based, has been released.  (From here via hubertf) If you are unfamiliar with the term, a short history is available.
Undeadly.org has a writeup on something I’ve needed but never done: accessing your console’s X desktop remotely, using x11vnc. There’s an earlier ‘Stupid SSH Trick’ for using ProxyCommand.
The SuperComputing 2007 (SC07) Cluster Challenge has undergrads creating computer clusters using commodity equipment, with the limit being amperage used. I link to it because that’s the problem space where DragonFly is headed.
Sepherosa Ziehau has posted initial patches for a rather large project: separating ipfw and dummynet, and making dummynet run cpu-local.
The 24th Chaos Computer Congress is at the end of this year in Berlin, and Simon ‘corecode’ Schubert is going to be there, along with other DragonFly folks like Sascha Wildner and Nuno Antunes. Here’s a chance to mix with other DragonFly users (and a lot of other people…)
I’d love to see a binary update system for DragonFly, similar to this alpha version of ‘haze’ for NetBSD. (Via)
Here’s two articles for your persual: First, this Guardian Unlimited article attacks one of those ‘well-known facts’ that Betamax failed despite being better than VHS. The title says it explicitly: Why VHS was better than Betamax. The author even manages to mention the Windows vs. Unix idea that is an offshoot of this.
Second, a New Yorker article for those who care about patents and copyright: The “Piracy Paradox” describes how a lack of copyright in fashion design had led to better business – perhaps this could apply to software design too?
Both links via things magazine. So, do you all (the readers) like when I go off the beaten path for related material like this?
Hasso Tepper updated the root servers list to accomodate an IP change. The interesting part of this is Hasso linking to something I didn’t know existed: the ICANN blog.
A recent PDF of an “About FreeBSD 7” presentation by Kris Kennaway includes DragonFly 1.8 results in some of its graphs. The graphs show results with sysbench and MySQL/PostgresSQL – unfortunately, DragonFly performance is still comparable to FreeBSD 4 because of the presence of the Giant Lock. (Thanks, Pieter Dumon)
MeetBSD is happening in about a month in Warsaw, Poland – registration is open now. (Via.)Â There’s already a good slate of speakers lined up.
BSDTalk has a 10-minute spot on AsiaBSDCon 2008 with Hiroki Sato and George Neville-Neil.
Andrew Atrens has a whole port of netgraph, including Bluetooth, waiting for integration. The Bluetooth part needs more work, but it is otherwise complete.
The FreeBSD Foundation is auctioning the first copy of the second edition of Michael Lucas’s “Absolute FreeBSD“. While you may not want to participate in the auction, I’ve read the first edition, and it’s a very enjoyable book.
The donations page will be cleaned out soon – please mention on kernel@ any DragonFly-related needs you have.