FreeBSD 12.0 Alpha Hits The Web

The first alpha release of FreeBSD 12.0 was quietly uploaded a few days ago to the project's download servers as the first step to shipping this next major update to the FreeBSD operating system.

FreeBSD 12.0-ALPHA1 was successfully made back on 10 August as what begins the project's "code slush" period whereby new commits can continue being merged for 12.0 but they shouldn't be introducing new features. The actual code freeze is what's beginning later this month followed by the code branching and then the beta releases start towards the end of September.

There is the 12.0 release schedule that lays out the three planned betas, at least three release candidates, and plans to officially announce FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE by the middle of November.

The 12.0 release notes haven't yet been written but there have been a lot of kernel improvements and other updates for this operating system update, ZFS improvements, new hardware enablement, etc. Those wishing to try out FreeBSD 12.0-ALPHA1 can do so via the FreeBSD.org FTP.

More details and benchmarks as the November release date approaches.