OpenBSD 2.1 Release Announcement

[sirsyko () ISHIBOO COM (Sir Syko Sexy)]

I am happy to announce the OpenBSD 2.1 release.  This release
continues the tradition from 2.0, adding even more fixes and
improvements.  A more complete (and in some ways nearly
incomprehensible) list of the changes we have made since 2.0 is
available for your reading pleasure at:

        http://www.OpenBSD.org/plus.html

A rough summary of the highlights would be:

        Way more security fixes.  Quite simply thousands of
            potential and real problems have been solved,
            like buffer overflows, /tmp races, and even
            protocol with other kinds of problems.
        Significant improvements towards POSIX compliance.  This
            happened because the NIST test suite became free.
        Nearly all userland bugs reported against FreeBSD,
            NetBSD, or OpenBSD had at least an attempt made at
            repair.  (Normally the bugs were easy to fix).
        Many pieces of imported software updated.
        More use of cryptography, where suitable.
        Many additional bugs fixed as we discovered them.

A (bootable) CD set will be available soon; keep your eye out for
further information which will be posted to the same places as this
announcement.  (It takes a few days for boxes of real CD's with real
artwork to be manufactured and shipped).

Installation of the system has been improved a fair bit; most
architectures can now be installed by simply booting a single install
floppy (or the CD, but more on that later).  That floppy will prepare
the disks and then install the entire OS using a standard URL
(ie. ftp://ftp.OpenBSD.org or http://www.cs.colorado.edu/ftp/pub/OpenBSD)

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This 2.1 release is available for eight architectures:

        alpha
        amiga
        arc
        i386
        mac68k
        mvme68k
        pmax
        sparc

For more information on these ports, check:

        http://www.OpenBSD.org/plat.html

A few of these architectures are also supplied with X11R6.  The
release was actually delayed by a small amount of time since we wanted
to ship with X11R6.3 and XFree86 3.3, both of which contain a number
of security fixes.  (As well, those of you who follow the BUGTRAQ
mailing list might be pleased to know that our X11R6.3 trees were
updated and rebuilt with fixes when those few new holes were discussed
few days ago).  Those architectures which include X11 are:

        amiga
        arc
        i386
        mac68k (still coming)
        pmax
        sparc

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The platform and X11 builders deserve credit for their efforts.  Some
of them had to build and test releases many, many, many times before
they were just right:

        Gene Skonicki
        George Robbins
        John Stone
        Matthieu Herrb
        Michael Shuldman
        Niklas Hallqvist
        Per Fogelstrom
        Steven Campbell
        Theo de Raadt
        Thomas Graichen
        Todd Fries

A special mention needs to go out to those who put lots of work into
the installation tools:

        Todd Miller
        Thorsten Lockert

Also, thanks a lot to everyone else who helped us test pre-releases.

I would also like to say that I am extremely grateful towards all
those who sent us bug reports and fixes since the last release;
especially those who worked with us on security and cryptography
issues.

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For downloading information, check
        http://www.OpenBSD.org/ftp.html.