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[20071219] NetBSD 4.0 has been released
Geert Hendrickx from the NetBSD release engineering team writes: `` The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce that release 4.0 of the NetBSD operating system is now available. NetBSD is a free, secure, and highly portable Unix-like Open Source operating system available for many platforms, from 64-bit Opteron machines and desktop systems to handheld and embedded devices. Its clean design and advanced features make it excellent in both production and research environments, and it is user-supported with complete source. Many applications are easily available through pkgsrc, the NetBSD Packages Collection.

Major achievements in NetBSD 4.0 include support for version 3 of the Xen virtual machine monitor, Bluetooth, many new device drivers and embedded platforms based on ARM, PowerPC and MIPS CPUs. New network services include iSCSI target (server) code and an implementation of the Common Address Redundancy Protocol. Also, system security was further enhanced with restrictions of mprotect(2) to enforce W^X policies, the Kernel Authorization framework, and improvements of the Veriexec file integrity subsystem, which can be used to harden the system against trojan horses and virus attacks.''

See the release announcement to learn more about the list of supported platforms, and a detailed list of changes between NetBSD 3.0 and 4.0 regarding drivers, networking, file systems, the kernel, security, the NetBSD userland and specific platforms. It also contains a list of software components that were removed from NetBSD' base system and which can be found in pkgsrc now, and how to get the NetBSD 4.0 release.

Please note that the NetBSD 4.0 release is dedicated to the late Jun-Ichiro "itojun" Hagino: ``Itojun was a member of the KAME project, which provided IPv6 and IPsec support; he was also a member of the NetBSD core team (the technical management for the project), and one of the Security Officers. Due to Itojun's efforts, NetBSD was the first open source operating system with a production ready IPv6 networking stack, which was included in the base system before many people knew what IPv6 was. We are grateful to have known and worked with Itojun, and we know that he will be missed. This release is therefore dedicated, with thanks, to his memory.''

Last but not least, NetBSD's fund raising campaign is still running -- if you enjoy NetBSD 4.0, feel free to give back! See the NetBSD donations page for more information. Thanks!

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