OpenBSD 4.9 adds support for NTFS file system

The OpenBSD 4.9 poster. Six months after version 4.8 arrived, the OpenBSD project development team has announced the release of OpenBSD 4.9, its free BSD UNIX-like operating system. According to developer Bob Beck, version 4.9 is the 29th release on CD (30th via FTP) and includes a number of new drivers, performance improvements and new features.

The x86 and amd64 versions of OpenBSD 4.9 now feature read-only support for the NTFS file system and a vmt(4) driver for VMware tools support as a guest OS, both of these are now enabled by default. Other changes include the ability to boot on machines with up to 64 cores, support for AES-NI instructions found in the latest Intel CPUs, and further improvements to suspend and resume.

The release includes the GNOME 2.32.1, KDE 3.5.10 and Xfce 4.8.0 desktop environments. New and updated packages include Thunderbird 3.1.7, Firefox 3.5.16 and 3.6.13, OpenOffice.org 3.3.0rc9 and LibreOffice 3.3.0.4, as well as Python 2.4.6, 2.5.4 and 2.6.

Further information about the release, including a full list of new features and changes, can be found in the release notes and in the change log. OpenBSD 4.9 is available to download from one of the project's mirrors. Alternatively, users can purchase the latest version on three CDs for CDN $50.00 (£31.74). The proceeds support the developers and donations are also accepted.

See also:

• OpenBSD 4.8 released, a report from The H.
• OpenBSD 4.7 with new drivers and platforms, a report from The H.
  
• OpenBSD: audits give no indication of back doors, a report from The H.
• FBI back door in IPSec implementation of OpenBSD?, a report from The H.

(crve)