NetBSD 9.0 Prepping For Release With AArch64 Support, Kernel ASLR & Better NVMe Perf

The NetBSD 9.0 code has now been branched and preparations underway for releasing the next version of this BSD operating system known for its vast architecture support.

Coming for NetBSD 9.0 are many security improvements including optional kernel ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) support, partial ASLR by default, new kernel sanitizers of KLEAK/KASAN/KUBSAN, and other security enhancements.

There is also NetBSD's new NVMM hypervisor for virtualization, their open-source graphics drivers have been re-based against the Linux 4.4 kernel state, NPF performance improvements, NVMe performance improvements, removal of ISDN networking support, and other updates.

The AArch64 support is also now in good shape with NetBSD 9.0 going along with the long list of other supported architectures. NetBSD's AArch64 code can handle big.LITTLE SMP, support for 32-bit binaries, UEFI, ACPI, and support for SBSA/SBBR hardware.

On the storage front, NetBSD 9.0 has better NVMe performance, its ZFS file-system support has been updated against OpenZFS, and support for GPT UEFI installations.

More details on the upcoming NetBSD 9.0 can be found via NetBSD.org.