FreeBSD 5.3 beta is released

The first beta of FreeBSD 5.3, the popular open source operating system, was released on Sunday.

The final release is now scheduled for the beginning of October.

The 5.3 release will boost performance on multi-processor systems and allow the use of Windows drivers for network cards, and is considered a significant milestone for FreeBSD.

Scott Long, the software engineer leading the release work, said the first beta release revealed some significant bugs in the way the software handled multiprocessor operations. These are now being addressed in the second beta version.

The second beta is scheduled for release next Sunday.

"We really are stressing stability and being production ready, and we're also working on improving performance -- but it's really about giving a stable foundation for more performance improvements and more features," said Long.

The full release FreeBSD release schedule is posted here.