DragonFlyBSD 4.2 Released: Brings Improved Graphics & New Compiler

DragonFlyBSD 4.2 was released this morning as the next major release to this popular BSD operating system. For end-users there are a lot of notable changes with this update.

First of all, of interest to many Phoronix readers will be the improved Intel and Radeon DRM/KMS graphics support. These drivers ported over from the Linux kernel have been re-based and support a lot of new functionality although their state is still in the Linux mid-3.x series with having several more releases to go in catching up with the latest mainline code. DragonFlyBSD also now has KMS console support.

Another big change with DragonFlyBSD is that they're now defaulting to GCC 5.1 as their base compiler while using GCC 4.7 as the back-up compiler. DragonFlyBSD is the first major BSD distribution using GCC5 by default with most other BSDs defaulting to LLMV/Clang.

Sendmail is replaced in DragonFly 4.2 by the DragonFly Mail Agent (DMA). This new DragonFly release also brings many audio and network improvements, encrypted SWAP support, and many other changes.

More details on today's 4.2 release via the announcement at DragonFlyBSD.org.