* NetBSD hires Andrew Doran for full-time SMP development

The NetBSD Foundation announces that it has hired Andrew Doran to work full-time on improving symmetrical multi-processing (SMP) in NetBSD. This work is made possible through a generous donation by Force10 Networks and internal funding by The NetBSD Foundation.

Andrew Doran is an independent, Dublin based Unix systems consultant with special interest in building scalable systems. He has been a NetBSD developer since 1999 and is currently working on the transition from a big-lock SMP implementation to a fine-grained model, which allows multiple CPUs to execute code in kernel context simultaneously. Hiring Andrew full-time will boost work in this area, with the final result of a SMP implementation that is ready for tomorrow's multi-core-CPUs.

Force10 Networks is a pioneer in building and securing reliable networks. The Force10 TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers and the recently introduced C300 resilient switch rely on the NetBSD-based FTOS to deliver the reliability, network control and scalability required to build application ready networks.

The funding will be for two months initially, and The NetBSD Foundation would like to extend this period. As a non-profit organization with no fixed financial backing, this is not possible without donations from individuals and companies. To realize our plans, $10k would be needed short term, with a goal of raising $15k or more eventually.

If you would like to donate to the ongoing effort of keeping NetBSD the most portable Open Source operating system, please consider supporting us! Donations via Paypal can be sent to paypal@NetBSD.org, or visit our donations page at http://www.NetBSD.org/donations/ for more details. Donations are tax deductible in the United States.

More information about the NetBSD operating system is available at http://www.NetBSD.org/, information about The NetBSD Foundation is at http://www.NetBSD.org/foundation/. More information about Andrew Doran's SMP work is available on his webpage at http://www.NetBSD.org/~ad/.

Information about Force10 Networks can be found at http://www.force10networks.com/.

[Tags: donations, force10, smp]

• I've had a look at the the BSD Certification Group's donation meter page tonight, and saw it's at 11% ($4.139US out of $35kUS) of what's needed right now. Looking at the list of who has contributed so far, I thought I'd mention this here: While you may think NetBSD does not need certification, think again how this may improve NetBSD's overall recognition in the industry. And in the end it's a *BSD* certification, and not FreeBSD and/or OpenBSD only - so I think NetBSD and its users should actively participate in the process to drive this.

  Go for it!

• Of course your favourite Open Source project may always need money, too, so think about it - a few bucks can make a difference. As for NetBSD, money's needed to buy new and replace old hardware, support public relations and handle legal fees.

  Personally, I'd like to see this expanded for having more people do work on public relations, setting up booths at roadshows and going to conferences, but that's not a cheap goal: Having materials like flyers, CDs, flags, posters etc. available is one thing, and paying for travel, accommodation and possibly conference and booth fees easily sum up to several hundred $/EUR per conference, and there's quite a number of them, all over the year and all over the planet.

  Another goal that I think would be nice to achieve is being able to reward people for contributing to the NetBSD project's code base, e.g. by implementing specific subsystems, various projects (think "Google Summer of Code") or fix critical bugs.

  For all this, money is needed. As a non-profit organization, the NetBSD Project does not sell its goods and instead gives it away for freely for the benefit of everyone. As a return, we're glad for every user -- private and commercial -- as well as companies to think about what they get, and give something back.

• Personally I'm still looking for someone to pay me for working part-time on NetBSD documentation and public relations. Current state of things as far as I'm concerned is that I'm devoting a lot of my personal time to NetBSD right now for free, while working on my PhD thesis; Once this is done, I'll have to find a job that's paying my bills, and I'd very much appreciate to continue working on NetBSD, but this won't be for free then any more. Timeframe for this is Q3/2007, so if you think things should continue as far as I'm concerned, contact me!

Update: Apparently the donation goal was met. Whee, thanks everyone for helping out!

[Tags: donations]

[And while we're here, if you want to support a poor blog writer/PhD student/teacher/NetBSD jack-of-all-trades/g4u author/etc., drop your dimes at paypal@feyrer.de :-) Note: Do not (I repeat: do not!) send any 12" Apple Powerbooks any more. Apple's move to Intel makes me wait for hardware that won't be obsoleted within the next 1-2 years. (My current notebook is about 5 years old and still works very fine - it's a Toshiba Portege 3440ct running NetBSD, of course, and the external video-out and esp. the APM suspend feature is something I wouldn't want to miss!). A nice alternative would be the Dell Latitude X300, but I doubt NetBSD supports external video-out and esp. suspend on that machine. Reports of the contrary welcome!]

[Tags: donations, netbsd]

Update: got it, thanks! ;)

[Tags: donations]

(1. no, the machines won't be used to run NetBSD or act as development machines other than for pkgsrc bulk builds; and 2. yes, I think Solaris is superior to NetBSD in many ways :)

[Tags: donations, pkgsrc, sun]