FreeBSD 14.2 now available with OpenZFS 2.2.6 and multiple optimizations

Unlike other FreeBSD releases, the barely unleashed version 14.2 is dedicated to someone. This person is Mike Karels, who was the Deputy Release Engineering Lead of the project at the time of his passing and a contributor to BSD for more than four decades. FreeBSD 14.2 is available for the amd64, i386, aarch64, armv7, powerpc, powerpc64, and riscv64 architectures, and, in addition to the bootable ISO images, it also comes in OCI container images.

The list of changes consists of multiple minor fixes and package updates, including OpenZFS 2.2.6 and OpenSSL 3.0.15. A change worth mentioning is the installer's new ability to download and install all necessary firmware packages after the installation of the base system. Various cloud support changes that have been sponsored by Amazon and OVHCloud are also present in the release notes. The list of updated device drivers includes pieces of code for Meteor Lake, Tiger Lake-H, various Realtek chipsets, and more. All the details can be found on this page.

Those who are still using FreeBSD on 32-bit platforms should keep in mind that FreeBSD 15.0 is expected to keep supporting 32-bit hardware only on armv7, and armv6, i386, and powerpc will be removed. However, the stable/14 branch will be supported until November 2028, so there is plenty of time to finally retire those old 32-bit machines.

Jens Muller's The Computer: A History from the 17th Century to Today can currently be acquired from Amazon only in hardcover form for $40 (discounted from a list price of $80).