=== FreeBSD Foundation

Links: +
link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/[FreeBSD Foundation] URL: link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/[] +
link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/technology-roadmap/[Technology Roadmap] URL: link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/technology-roadmap/[] +
link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/donate/[Donate] URL: link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/donate/[] +
link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-donors/freebsd-foundation-partnership-program/[Foundation Partnership Program] URL: link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-donors/freebsd-foundation-partnership-program/[] +
link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/journal/[FreeBSD Journal] URL: link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/journal/[] +
link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/events/[Foundation Events] URL: link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/events/[]

Contact: Deb Goodkin <deb@FreeBSDFoundation.org>

The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the FreeBSD Project and worldwide community, and helping to advance the state of FreeBSD.
We do this in both technical and non-technical ways.
We are 100% supported by donations from individuals and corporations and those investments help us fund the:

* Software development projects to implement features and functionality in FreeBSD
* Sponsor and organize conferences and developer summits to provide collaborative opportunities and promote FreeBSD
* Purchase and support of hardware to improve and maintain FreeBSD infrastructure
* Resources to improve security, quality assurance, and continuous integration efforts
* Materials and staff needed to promote, educate, and advocate for FreeBSD
* Collaboration between commercial vendors and FreeBSD developers
* Representation of the FreeBSD Project in executing contracts, license agreements, and other legal arrangements that require a recognized legal entity

Even though the summer months tend to be slower, we accomplished a lot of work and you will see that in our Q3 report!
Some highlights include raising over $135,000 from individual donors, and kicking off two major projects.
First, thanks to a large investment from the Sovereign Tech Fund, we will be doing even more to improve our infrastructure.
Second, thanks to a large investment by Quantum Leap Research and the Foundation, we will be working to accelerate a FreeBSD on Modern Laptops project.
We also continued work on the Alpha-Omega funded project, hired a userland software developer, and opened a job position for a solutions specialist.

As you will see below, spreading the word about FreeBSD through advocacy and community is still an important part of our mission.
Over the summer, we sponsored  EuroBSDCon, and the upcoming FreeBSD and OpenZFS Summits, and provided travel grants to around eight FreeBSD contributors to attend EuroBSDCon.
Our advocacy team was busy producing content that promotes the benefits and strengths of FreeBSD, why companies are using FreeBSD, and why you should use FreeBSD if you care about security.
We also promoted work within the Project and Foundation on social media.

During EuroBSDCon, Foundation and Core Team members met to discuss Core's questions as they navigate what they want to accomplish during their term.
We identified 2 key areas to work on in the near term:

. Financial reporting transparency - Break out operating system improvements spending in our quarterly reports.
We are working with our accountant so that starting in 2025, we can report how much we are spending on certain projects and key areas, like laptop, enterprise, security...
In the meantime, we will add notes to our financial reports that document which projects are included in the OS Improvement expense category.
We are aware that we have not posted financials this year.
Our accounting team is introducing us to improved reporting, while integrating our books into a new accounting system.

. The projects we are funding are not mentioned on the Project's website.
We document these on our website, because we want to show our donors where their financial contributions are being spent.
We recognize that we need to also add documentation about these projects on FreeBSD.org, so we will investigate how to better connect our software development work with the Project.

We are funding a lot of software development work to advance, improve, and keep FreeBSD secure.
We received funding for some of this work, but most of it is being funded by your donations and our investments.
Our purpose is to focus on the long-term sustainability of FreeBSD.
To do this, we need more companies stepping in to help fund our efforts.
Our investments will only carry on this work for a year or two at most.
If your company relies on FreeBSD, please consider giving a financial contribution so we can ensure it stays the secure, reliable, and innovative platform you depend on.
Not sure how to go about asking?
Please mailto:deb@freebsdfoundation.org[reach out].
We can help you navigate the process.

Please go here to make a donation: link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/donate/[].
To find out more about our Partnership Program, go here: link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-donors/freebsd-foundation-partnership-program/[].

==== OS Improvements
During the third quarter of 2024, 263 src, 37 ports, and 11 doc tree commits identified The FreeBSD Foundation as a sponsor.

Several members of the FreeBSD Foundation's development team attended the link:https://wiki.freebsd.org/DevSummit/202409[FreeBSD Developer Summit] in Dublin, Ireland prior to link:https://2024.eurobsdcon.org/[EuroBSDCon 2024].
You can watch a video of the link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDEb_0CSur4[Hello From the Foundation] talk to open the Summit, when:

* Deb Goodkin introduced the FreeBSD Foundation
* Joe Mingrone introduced members of the development team and said a few words about FreeBSD's 2024 Google Summer Code campaign
* Ed Maste described some of the current or recently completed Foundation development projects.

Alice Sowerby, who recently began supporting the Foundation in Technical Program Management role, gave link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb1ptoPfawM[a talk to introduce the CHAOSS (Community Health Analytics for Open Source Software) project] and how to start collecting and working with community health metrics.

The Foundation, along with new funding and investment partners, is currently supporting four major projects.

* The first, partially funded by link:https://alpha-omega.dev/[Alpha-Omega], is to improve FreeBSD security.
As part of this effort, the Foundation enlisted link:https://www.synacktiv.com/en[Synacktiv] to run a code audit on two significant subsystems: bhyve and Capsicum.
For details, refer to the dedicated <<_capsicum_and_bhyve_code_audit,Capsicum and Bhyve Code Audit>> report entry.

* The second project, jointly funded by AMD and the Foundation, is to develop an AMD IOMMU driver for FreeBSD.
The impetus for the project was to better support large core AMD systems.
However, the driver will be useful in different scenarios when interrupt remapping is required.
The work is nearing completion, and developer Konstantin Belousov is testing the driver on some of AMD's large-core-count systems before committing.

* The third project, backed by an investment from the link:https://www.sovereigntechfund.de[Sovereign Tech Fund], is to improve FreeBSD through five key sub-projects:
** Zero Trust Builds: Enhance tooling and processes
** CI/CD Automation: Streamline software delivery and operations
** Reduce Technical Debt: Implement tools and processes to keep technical debt low
** Security Controls: Modernize and extend security artifacts, including the FreeBSD Ports and Package Collection, to assist with regulatory compliance
** SBOM Improvements: Enhance and implement new tooling and processes for FreeBSD SBOM

+
To reduce technical debt, we have partnered with link:https://bitergia.com/[Bitergia] to analyze and assess our open Bugzilla bugs.
By implementing improved issue management processes and establishing open-source tooling for the long term, our goal is to achieve and sustain a manageable bug backlog.
The remaining four sub-projects will begin in 2025.

* The fourth project, which will be funded by both the Foundation and Quantum Leap Research, is to link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/why-laptop-support-why-now-freebsds-strategic-move-toward-broader-adoption/[improve FreeBSD laptop usability].
  We have begun (or will soon start) supporting developers working in the following areas:

** Enhanced wireless chipset support: Expanding chipset compatibility to ensure reliable wireless connectivity and support for newer wireless standards.
** Power management: Implementing modern power-saving states (such as s2idle and s0ix) to improve battery life and energy efficiency.
** Graphics enhancements: Improving support for Intel and AMD graphics by integrating the latest DRM drivers.
** Audio improvements: Enhancing audio routing, headphone switching, and digital microphone (DMIC) functionality for a more user-friendly multimedia experience.
** Laptop-specific hardware features: Addressing specialty buttons, touchpad gestures, and other unique hardware components found in modern laptops.

link:https://www.freebsd.org/projects/summerofcode/[FreeBSD completed our 20th consecutive year participating in Google Summer of Code].
The link:https://wiki.freebsd.org/SummerOfCode2024Projects[11 projects for this summer] are now complete; nine passed.

The Foundation has been providing project management support for the FreeBSD Open Container Initiative (OCI) Working Group, with Alice Sowerby hosting the bi-weekly meeting, and running the recent link:https://github.com/oci-playground/freebsd-podman-testing/blob/main/README.md[Podman on FreeBSD testing project].
The link:https://opencontainers.org/[OCI] develops open industry standards for cloud native container formats and runtimes, ensuring platform consistency.
The FreeBSD OCI Working Group is defining these standards for FreeBSD, with implementations using jails and potentially lightweight VMs with bhyve.
Refer to the Foundation's link:https://freebsdfoundation.org/project/oci-container-support/[OCI Container Support Project page] for details.

In other Foundation news:

* Isaac Freund joined the Foundation's development team as a Userland Developer.
  As the lead developer of the River Wayland Compositor and a member of the Core Zig Team, we are excited about the experience Isaac will be bringing to FreeBSD.

* Alfonso Sabato Siciliano is working on a Vision Accessibility Subsystem for blind, low-vision, and color blind users.
  New features will include a Braille refreshable display framework, a communication channel for the virtual terminal console, a speech synthesizer, high-contrast TUI utilities, and an accessibility book to document assistive technologies available on FreeBSD.

* Tom Jones, completed his work with RGNets to port the Vector Packet Processor (VPP), a layer 2-4 multi-platform network stack in userspace, to FreeBSD.
  You can read about Tom's next project to support full-cone NAT for FreeBSD firewalls in his <<_endpoint_independent_nat,Endpoint-Independent NAT>> report entry.

* Christos Margiolis continued to improve FreeBSD's audio stack and provide audio developers with useful tools and frameworks to facilitate sound development on FreeBSD.
  Refer to the <<_audio_stack_improvements,Audio Stack Improvements>> entry for the latest news.

* Olivier Certner has two entries in this report.
  You can read about his latest work in the <<_scheduling_priorities_256_queue_runqueues_sub_project,Scheduling Priorities: 256-queue Runqueues Sub-Project>> and <<_mac_do4_setcred2_mdo1,mac_do(4), setcred(2), mdo(1)>> report entries.

* Bjoern Zeeb continued to improve wireless networking on FreeBSD.
  You can read the latest news in Bjoern's <<_wireless_update,Wireless Update>> entry.

* Philip Paeps continued work on a contract to modernize the FreeBSD cluster.

* Chih-Hsin Chang has continued work to port OpenStack components so that the cloud computing platform can be run on FreeBSD hosts.
  Refer to the <<_openstack_on_freebsd,OpenStack on FreeBSD>> entry for the latest information.

* Other members of the Foundation's technology team contributed to FreeBSD development efforts.  For example:
** Mitchell Horne committed work for RISC-V, including adding support for the Supervisor-mode: Page-Based Memory Types (Svpbmt) extension
** Ed Maste removed the deprecated mergemaster tool in favor of man:etcupdate[8] for updating files not managed by install world
** Joe Mingrone updated our base libpcap and man:tcpdump[1]
** Li-Wen Hsu kept our Jenkins port tracking the latest upstream versions with a number of port updates.

==== Continuous Integration and Workflow Improvement
As part of our continued support of the FreeBSD Project, the Foundation supports a full-time staff member dedicated to improving the Project's continuous integration system and test infrastructure.

==== Advocacy

During the third quarter of 2024, we continued growing our efforts to drive awareness, advocate for the project, highlight users, and bring educational content to the FreeBSD community.
Below are some of those efforts.

* Presented at the EuroBSDcon 2024 FreeBSD Developer Summit.
  Slides and the Live stream are https://wiki.freebsd.org/DevSummit/202409[now available].
* Attended and exhibited at https://2024.eurobsdcon.org/[EuroBSDCon 2024].
  The Foundation was again a Silver Sponsor.
* Finalized our Bronze Sponsorship of the https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/event-calendar/openzfs-developer-summit-2024/[OpenZFS User and Developer Summit]
* Began planning the https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/event-calendar/fall-2024-freebsd-summit/[Fall 2024 FreeBSD Summit] taking place November 7-8, 2024 in San Jose, CA.
  The program is now available and registration is open.
* Updated the community on the new release schedule: https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/navigating-freebsds-new-quarterly-and-biennial-release-schedule/[Navigating FreeBSD's New Quarterly and Biennial Release Schedule]
* Announced: https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/new-cis-freebsd-14-benchmark-secure-your-systems-with-expert-guided-best-practices/[New CIS® FreeBSD 14 Benchmark: Secure Your Systems with Expert-Guided Best Practices]
* Shared more information about the Sovereign Tech Fund's investment in the Foundation: https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/sovereign-tech-fund-to-invest-e686400-in-freebsd-infrastructure-modernization/[Sovereign Tech Fund to Invest €686,400 in FreeBSD Infrastructure Modernization]
* Announced the joint investment by https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/latest-news/quantum-leap-research-and-freebsd-foundation-to-invest-750000-to-improve-laptop-support-and-usability/[Quantum Leap Research and FreeBSD Foundation to Improve Laptop Support and Usability] and more on https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/why-laptop-support-why-now-freebsds-strategic-move-toward-broader-adoption/[why we are making this investment].
* Published additional blogs including:
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/freebsd-ports-and-packages-what-you-need-to-know/[FreeBSD Ports and Packages: What you need to know]
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/why-you-should-use-freebsd/[Why You Should Use FreeBSD]
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/enhancing-memory-safety-in-programming-insights-from-the-freebsd-vendor-summit/[Enhancing Memory Safety in Programming: Insights from the FreeBSD Vendor Summit]
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/freebsd-as-a-platform-for-your-future-technology/[FreeBSD as a Platform for Your Future Technology]
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/celebrating-freebsd-insights-from-deb-goodkin/[Celebrating FreeBSD: Insights from Deb Goodkin]
* Participated in the following contributed articles, interviews and podcasts:
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/latest-news/get-to-know-deb-goodkin-executive-director-freebsd-foundation/[Get to Know: Deb Goodkin, Executive Director, FreeBSD Foundation]
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/latest-news/all-things-open-blog-unlocking-the-potential-of-freebsd/[All Things Open Blog: Unlocking the Potential of FreeBSD]
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/latest-news/why-open-source-can-be-the-perfect-place-for-new-developers-and-how-to-get-started-with-deb-goodkin-from-the-freebsd-foundation/[Why Open Source Can Be the Perfect Place for New Developers – and How to Get Started, with Deb Goodkin from the FreeBSD Foundation]
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/latest-news/steady-in-a-shifting-open-source-world-freebsds-enduring-stability/[Steady in a shifting Open Source world: FreeBSD's enduring stability]
** https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/latest-news/apples-open-source-roots-the-bsd-heritage-behind-macos-and-ios/[Apple's Open Source Roots: The BSD Heritage Behind macOS and iOS]
* Published the https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/newsletter/july-2024-foundation-update/[July 2024], https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/newsletter/august-2024-foundation-update/[August 2024], and https://freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/newsletter/september-newsletter/[September 2024] FreeBSD Foundation Updates.
* Released the https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/journal/browser-based-edition/configuration-management-2/[May/June 2024] and https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/journal/browser-based-edition/storage-and-filesystems/[July/August 2024] issues of the FreeBSD Journal with HTML versions of the articles.

==== Legal/FreeBSD IP

The Foundation owns the FreeBSD trademarks, and it is our responsibility to protect them.
We also provide legal support for the core team to investigate questions that arise.

Go to link:https://freebsdfoundation.org[] to find more about how we support FreeBSD and how we can help you!
