The FreeBSD Foundation and QUANTUM Leap Research have joined forces to launch a project aimed at enhancing support for laptops running FreeBSD. This collaborative effort will involve key manufacturers like Dell, AMD, and Framework. The project has initially been funded with $750,000, with a total investment goal of $1 million.
The primary objective of this initiative is to tailor FreeBSD to better meet the needs of modern laptop users, all while upholding the platform’s trademark traits of security, performance, and simplicity. To compete with other operating systems, FreeBSD is striving to offer a seamless user experience right out of the box, eliminating the need for extensive configuration. Some of the key areas identified for improvement to enhance user experience include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sleep mode functionality, digital microphones, hardware control buttons, and input/output devices.
Furthermore, efforts will be directed towards positioning FreeBSD as a robust operating system for enterprise laptops. The platform’s strengths, such as stability, predictability, and security, will be highlighted as competitive advantages. Identified weaknesses in the corporate laptop environment, such as limited disk encryption support, sleep mode functionality, and new wireless standards, will be addressed. By ensuring FreeBSD compatibility on laptops, the platform has the potential to emerge as a reliable and secure alternative to mainstream systems like Linux and Windows in corporate settings.
Key areas of focus for the project include:
- Enhancing support for wireless chipsets and new wireless standards.
- Developing energy-efficient mechanisms and battery-saving features, such as S2IDLE and S0IX support in device drivers.
- Improving GPU support for Intel and AMD, with fresh DRM updates being integrated into the system.
- Enhancing the sound subsystem, including sound routing, headphone connection detection, and digital microphone support.
- Supporting laptop-specific hardware features like special buttons and touchpad gestures.
- Introducing heterogeneous cores to support both high-performance and energy-efficient tasks in the CPU, as well as expanding the capabilities of the Bhyve hypervisor for creating virtual environments with other operating systems.