RootBSD blog » misc

Versions 1.0, the first easy to use Subversion Mac client

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:26:22 +0000

One of our customers, Sofa, recently released the first easy to use Subversion client for the Mac, named Versions. Version control is a critical piece to software development projects, and the tools and processes to handle versioning have often been pain points for development teams. The ability to easily visualize commits, notes and changes that Versions offers is a big step forward for Mac developers.

A time-limited demo is available for free download and a single copy sells for 39 euros. Versions has been in public beta since June of 2008. You can view the press release here or read more at the Unofficial Apple Weblog.

The registration system for Versions is hosted on a FreeBSD Virtual Private Server at RootBSD. The flexibility that RootBSD’s VPS service offers allowed administrators to upgrade their VPS in a matter of minutes to handle increased server load at the release date.

Get GUI on FreeBSD

chrisp — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:58:05 +0000

The command line interface for FreeBSD can be intimidating and cause many users excessive consternation. So why not take FreeBSD to the next level and get moving in a more mouse-driven interface. It’s quick and simple and there are several graphic user interfaces (GUI) available for the operating system.

Some of you might be surprised to find out that there is a graphical interface built into FreeBSD while some of you might have tried and failed to get it running successfully. With the X interface everyone with FreeBSD can have a completely graphical interface.

X windows has been in development for a very long time and some companies, including nVidia, offer native drivers for the high-end cards and X windows. Even OpenGL is supported and has libraries available along with Motif.

The two major desktop environments KDE (http://www.kde.org/) and Gnome (http://www.gnome.org/) are also both available for FreeBSD allowing you to use FreeBSD not only as your web server or network server but also as a fully functional productive desktop. Both are available free and offer a host of options and applications that can get you up and running right from the install.

The X windows interface isn’t devoid of applications. For productivity you have OpenOffice which is rapidly becoming the open source solution for document, spreadsheet and presentation creation. For surfing you have multiple browsers available including Opera and the ever popular Firefox. You can even do video conferences, instant messaging and a whole lot more all through the graphical interface.

So if you are unfamiliar with the command line, want a more ergonomic and graphical interface for your FreeBSD or simply want to play games, surf the web and be more productive why not step away from the command line and into X windows. You can always open a command line in a window and work from there while doing other things at the same time. Help can be found at the FreeBSD Handbook, Chapter 5 is dedicated to the X Window System (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11.html).

What is TrustedBSD?

casey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:10:39 +0000

You may have heard of something called “TrustedBSD” in your discussions of FreeBSD security features. But what is it? A part of the operating system? An application? Something new? Actually, TrustedBSD is a project, started in 2000 with the goal of providing a set of trusted operating extensions for FreeBSD.

It consists of a set of kernel and user-land extensions targeting the evaluation criteria from Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation and the Orange Book (a Department of Defense Document that sets standards for community security). Trusted operating systems have requirements above and beyond those of normal operating systems, including that of extensive documentation.

Many features of TrustedBSD that have matured over the past eight years have already made their way into the operating system, as well as those of others (for example, the TrustedBSD MAC framework was used in Apple OS X). Some of the key features being worked on are: access control lists, mandatory access controls, security event auditing, extended file system attributes, the NSA’s FLASK/TE implementation from SELinux to FreeBSD, as well as the development of OpenBSD.

These features should improve the overall security and usability of FreeBSD. Improvements to system privilege will reduce the risk associated with common system management functions. Access control will overall be more discretionary and fine-grained. Also in the works is event auditing support–a system to monitor security events and notify administrators in the case of irregularities.

The project is still under development. For access to documentation as well as some code, visit www.trustedbsd.com.