FreeBSD 5.1 has been released. This is mostly a technology release, focussed primarily on extending FreeBSD's multiprocessor and application-level threading support. Although many bugs have been fixed since the 5.0 release [story], FreeBSD 5.1 might not be suitable for all users yet, Scott Long of the Release Engineering Team warns in the announcement. If you require the absolute stability FreeBSD is known for, you can always run the latest 4.x release. The release is dedicated to the memory of Alan Eldridge, a talented and dedicated member of the KDE On FreeBSD team.

The release announcement has been attached to this story; you might also be interested in reading the release notes and hardware notes, or check for any errata.

From: Scott Long (scottl at FreeBSD dot org)
To: freebsd-announce at FreeBSD dot org
Subject: [FreeBSD-Announce] FreeBSD 5.1 Released!
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 09:36:57 -0700 (PDT)

It is my great privilege and pleasure to announce the availability of
FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE. This release continues FreeBSD on the path of 
advanced multiprocessor and application thread support and includes 
many improved and widely-sought features:

    * Experimental 1:1 and M:N thread libraries provide kernel support 
      for efficient application multithreading.
    * Support for Physical Address Extensions enables Pentium Pro and  
      higher CPUs to access up to 64GB of RAM.
    * Experimental Name Service Switch infrastructure allows 
      enterprises to seamlessly integrate with LDAP and Active 
      Directory services.
    * Enhanced "jail" management, allowing one server to provide many 
      different "virtual machines" with reduced administrator 
      workload.
    * New device drivers include support for IBM/Adaptec ServeRAID 
      controllers, expanded support for USB 2.0 and USB Ethernet 
      adapters, and Promise Serial ATA controllers.
    * Experimental support for the amd64 platform allows FreeBSD to 
      run on single processor AMD Opteron systems.

Although stability is greatly improved and many bugs have been fixed, 
FreeBSD 5.1 might not be suitable for all users. More conservative 
users may prefer to continue using FreeBSD 4.X. Information on the 
various trade-offs involved, as well as some notes on future plans for 
both FreeBSD 4.X and 5.X, can be found in the Early Adopter's Guide, 
available here:

http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/5.1R/early-adopter.html

For a complete list of new features and known problems, please see the 
release notes and errata list, available here:

http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/5.1R/relnotes.html

http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/5.1R/errata.html

For more information about FreeBSD release engineering activities, 
please see:

http://www.FreeBSD.org/releng/

This release is dedicated to the memory of Alan Eldridge. Alan was a 
talented and dedicated member of the KDE On FreeBSD team and the 
FreeBSD community, and his passing is mourned by all of us. For more 
information, please see http://freebsd.kde.org/memoriam/alane.php.

Availability

FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE supports the i386, pc98, alpha, sparc64, and ia64 
architectures and can be installed directly over the net using the 
boot floppies or copied to a local NFS/FTP server. Distributions for 
all architectures are available now.

Please continue to support the FreeBSD Project by purchasing media 
from one of our supporting vendors. The following companies will be 
offering FreeBSD 5.1 based products:
FreeBSD Mall, Inc. http://www.freebsdmall.com/
Daemonnews, Inc. http://www.bsdmall.com/freebsd1.html

If you can't afford FreeBSD on media, are impatient, or just want to 
use it for evangelism purposes, then by all means download the ISO 
images. We can't promise that all the mirror sites will carry the 
larger ISO images, but they will at least be available from:

    * ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp12.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp.tw.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp2.jp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp3.jp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp4.jp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp5.jp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp.cz.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp7.de.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp.lt.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp2.za.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp.se.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp1.ru.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp2.ru.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/
    * ftp://ftp4.ru.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/

FreeBSD is also available via anonymous FTP from mirror sites in the 
following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, 
China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, 
Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, 
Saraville, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, 
Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, 
Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Before trying the central FTP site, please check your regional 
mirror(s) first by going to:

ftp://ftp..FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD

Any additional mirror sites will be labeled ftp2, ftp3 and so on.

More information about FreeBSD mirror sites can be found at:

http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html

For instructions on installing FreeBSD, please see Chapter 2 of The 
FreeBSD Handbook. It provides a complete installation walk-through for 
users new to FreeBSD, and can be found online at:

http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install.html

Acknowledgments

Many companies donated equipment, network access, or man-hours to 
finance the release engineering activities for FreeBSD 5.1 including 
The FreeBSD Mall, Compaq, Yahoo!, Sentex Communications, and 
NTT/Verio.

The release engineering team for 5.1-RELEASE includes:
Scott Long (scottl at FreeBSD dot org) Release Engineering, IA32 and 
  Alpha Release Building
Bruce A. Mah (bmah at FreeBSD dot org) Release Engineering, 
  Documentation
Robert Watson (rwatson at FreeBSD dot org) Release Engineering, 
  Security
John Baldwin (jhb at FreeBSD dot org) Release Engineering
Murray Stokely (murray at FreeBSD dot org) Release Engineering
Bill Fenner (fenner at FreeBSD dot org) Sparc64 Release Building
Marcel Moolenaar (marcel at FreeBSD dot org) IA64 Release Building
Peter Wemm (peter at FreeBSD dot org) AMD64 Release Building
Takahashi Yoshihiro (nyan at FreeBSD dot org) PC98 Release Building
Kris Kennaway (kris at FreeBSD dot org) Package Building
Jacques A. Vidrine (nectar at FreeBSD dot org) Security Officer