NetBSD 11 prepares for launch with 57 supported platforms
(2025/08/05)
- Reference: 1754408046
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/05/netbsd_11_is_near/
- Source link:
NetBSD 11 is taking shape and the code branch for the new release has been created.
The NetBSD project blog reveals that the [1]NetBSD 11.0 release process is under way . That means it's now possible to see some of the changes coming in the next release of the oldest of the FOSS BSDs.
It's less than a year and a half since the [2]release of NetBSD 10 , which was followed at the end of last year by [3]NetBSD 10.1 . (Unfortunately, by then, the testbed machine that The Reg FOSS desk tested version 10 on had succumbed to a hardware failure, so we didn't have a machine handy to try the upgrade.)
[4]
For many years, NetBSD's most distinctive feature was the range of supported platforms, which the project terms [5]ports . These are not as simple as CPU architectures – these are variants for whole families of computer, including firmware and bootloaders, chipsets, and so on. For some CPU families, there may be 10 or more different supported platforms. To pick an example that may be familiar to many an
old geek experienced technology enthusiast, you can't boot an Amiga, an Atari ST, or a classic Mac from the same boot media, even though they all use CPUs from the Motorola 68000 series.
[6]
[7]
Although there are [8]just eight Tier 1 ports, there are a whopping [9]49 more in Tier 2 . In NetBSD 11, there will be slightly clearer demarcation between 32-bit and 64-bit components in the Tier 1 ports. For instance, some 64-bit CPUs can also run packages for their older 32-bit relatives, but many do not require that code in order to install a running system, so it will be split out. Where it makes sense, install media images will be split into small core images without debug and compatibility code, and full images that include these non-essential but handy components. The descriptions of these use well-known terms: "CD-R" versus "DVD-R" images.
Setting aside platform differences, the Tier-1 platforms are x86-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and SPARC, plus the Xen hypervisor with both forms of x86. (Tier 2 support also covers multiple other CPU families, such as DEC Alpha, SH3, HP PA-RISC, Itanium, and DEC VAX.) Several different forms of virtualization are supported, including Xen's hybrid [10]PVH , which The Register [11]explained in detail when Xen 4.11 debuted . You can now run PVH NetBSD VMs on some other hypervisors, including Amazon Firecracker and QEMU.
[12]
There are more and improved system monitoring tools, including the [13]heartbeat watchdog. (Watchdog timers are extremely important in some roles, such as embedded systems, as they allow the OS to detect when some subsystem has stopped responding.) There are improvements to Linux emulation and to the still-nascent [14]RISC-V port . The kernel, userland, and development tools have all received updates.
Unfortunately, some planned changes didn't make it in, including updated Wi-Fi support and newer graphics drivers – but the team is aiming for a fast release cycle. The blog post ends:
No promises, but we will try to make this one of the shortest release cycles ever…
Ideally we will be in release candidate state at EuroBSDCon late in September, and cut the final release early in October.
NetBSD is in a more interesting position than ever, in a FOSS Unix market that is changing in important ways. At the time of writing, Debian 13 is due in about a week and it will [15]drop its x86-32 edition , which will affect multiple downstream distributions. FreeBSD 15 is due later in the year, and the [16]plan is that it won't offer an i386 edition, either.
[17]Project Banana ripens into a pre-alpha for KDE Linux, and you can test it
[18]Legendary OpenPrinting architect looking for new role
[19]Gadget geeks aghast at guru's geriatric GPU
[20]Canonical dusts off TPM encryption for Ubuntu 25.10
Several other Linux distros will continue to support 32-bit x86, although it's likely that soon this will mean i686 or above only. Support for the 486 family was very nearly removed in the last kernel release, as [21]Phoronix reported in May , and it probably will happen soon. [22]LWN reports that support for uniprocessor systems is going soon, too. We suspect that dropping x86-32 altogether isn't all that far off.
OpenBSD also has an [23]enviable platform list , but it's a rather more specialized OS – for instance, while it supports some Apple Silicon kit quite well, it lacks Bluetooth support entirely. It runs on an M1 Mac mini, but Apple's own trackpad remains unsupported. Although it's a simple OS, in some ways it's very complex – such as its [24]uniquely complex default partitioning layout – and, critically, it lacks anything akin to LVM or ZFS for simplifying this.
NetBSD's slogan is " [25]Of course it runs NetBSD ," but in recent years, Linux has rivaled that. That is already starting to go away, meaning that the balance will start swinging back in NetBSD's favor. It will support more platforms than Linux or FreeBSD, and support more hardware than OpenBSD while remaining simpler than both. It even has [26]limited support for ZFS . Of course, it also remains free from systemd, Wayland, Snap, Flatpak, OStree, and all those other controversial parts of modern Linux. This combination of attributes may yet win it new admirers. ®
Get our [27]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_11_0_release_process
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/17/30yo_netbsd_releases_v10/
[3] https://www.netbsd.org/releases/formal-10/NetBSD-10.1.html
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJIqh9VLpITvPuNhV1CteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.netbsd.org/ports/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJIqh9VLpITvPuNhV1CteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJIqh9VLpITvPuNhV1CteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.netbsd.org/ports/#ports-tier1
[9] https://www.netbsd.org/ports/#ports-tier2
[10] https://xenbits.xen.org/docs/4.6-testing/misc/pvh.html
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2018/07/11/xen_4_11_pvh_guest_type/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJIqh9VLpITvPuNhV1CteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://man.netbsd.org/heartbeat.9
[14] https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/riscv/
[15] https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/release-notes/issues.en.html#i386-reduced-support
[16] https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-announce/2024-February/000117.html
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/kde_linux_prealpha/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/canonical_drops_openprinting_lead/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/geeks_aghast_at_guru_gpu/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/31/ubuntu_tpm_fde/
[21] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-x86-Removing-Old-CPUs-v2
[22] https://lwn.net/Articles/1023575/
[23] https://www.openbsd.org/plat.html
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/10/version_76_openbsd_of_theseus/
[25] https://www.netbsd.org/about/portability.html
[26] https://wiki.netbsd.org/zfs/
[27] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The NetBSD project blog reveals that the [1]NetBSD 11.0 release process is under way . That means it's now possible to see some of the changes coming in the next release of the oldest of the FOSS BSDs.
It's less than a year and a half since the [2]release of NetBSD 10 , which was followed at the end of last year by [3]NetBSD 10.1 . (Unfortunately, by then, the testbed machine that The Reg FOSS desk tested version 10 on had succumbed to a hardware failure, so we didn't have a machine handy to try the upgrade.)
[4]
For many years, NetBSD's most distinctive feature was the range of supported platforms, which the project terms [5]ports . These are not as simple as CPU architectures – these are variants for whole families of computer, including firmware and bootloaders, chipsets, and so on. For some CPU families, there may be 10 or more different supported platforms. To pick an example that may be familiar to many an
old geek experienced technology enthusiast, you can't boot an Amiga, an Atari ST, or a classic Mac from the same boot media, even though they all use CPUs from the Motorola 68000 series.
[6]
[7]
Although there are [8]just eight Tier 1 ports, there are a whopping [9]49 more in Tier 2 . In NetBSD 11, there will be slightly clearer demarcation between 32-bit and 64-bit components in the Tier 1 ports. For instance, some 64-bit CPUs can also run packages for their older 32-bit relatives, but many do not require that code in order to install a running system, so it will be split out. Where it makes sense, install media images will be split into small core images without debug and compatibility code, and full images that include these non-essential but handy components. The descriptions of these use well-known terms: "CD-R" versus "DVD-R" images.
Setting aside platform differences, the Tier-1 platforms are x86-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and SPARC, plus the Xen hypervisor with both forms of x86. (Tier 2 support also covers multiple other CPU families, such as DEC Alpha, SH3, HP PA-RISC, Itanium, and DEC VAX.) Several different forms of virtualization are supported, including Xen's hybrid [10]PVH , which The Register [11]explained in detail when Xen 4.11 debuted . You can now run PVH NetBSD VMs on some other hypervisors, including Amazon Firecracker and QEMU.
[12]
There are more and improved system monitoring tools, including the [13]heartbeat watchdog. (Watchdog timers are extremely important in some roles, such as embedded systems, as they allow the OS to detect when some subsystem has stopped responding.) There are improvements to Linux emulation and to the still-nascent [14]RISC-V port . The kernel, userland, and development tools have all received updates.
Unfortunately, some planned changes didn't make it in, including updated Wi-Fi support and newer graphics drivers – but the team is aiming for a fast release cycle. The blog post ends:
No promises, but we will try to make this one of the shortest release cycles ever…
Ideally we will be in release candidate state at EuroBSDCon late in September, and cut the final release early in October.
NetBSD is in a more interesting position than ever, in a FOSS Unix market that is changing in important ways. At the time of writing, Debian 13 is due in about a week and it will [15]drop its x86-32 edition , which will affect multiple downstream distributions. FreeBSD 15 is due later in the year, and the [16]plan is that it won't offer an i386 edition, either.
[17]Project Banana ripens into a pre-alpha for KDE Linux, and you can test it
[18]Legendary OpenPrinting architect looking for new role
[19]Gadget geeks aghast at guru's geriatric GPU
[20]Canonical dusts off TPM encryption for Ubuntu 25.10
Several other Linux distros will continue to support 32-bit x86, although it's likely that soon this will mean i686 or above only. Support for the 486 family was very nearly removed in the last kernel release, as [21]Phoronix reported in May , and it probably will happen soon. [22]LWN reports that support for uniprocessor systems is going soon, too. We suspect that dropping x86-32 altogether isn't all that far off.
OpenBSD also has an [23]enviable platform list , but it's a rather more specialized OS – for instance, while it supports some Apple Silicon kit quite well, it lacks Bluetooth support entirely. It runs on an M1 Mac mini, but Apple's own trackpad remains unsupported. Although it's a simple OS, in some ways it's very complex – such as its [24]uniquely complex default partitioning layout – and, critically, it lacks anything akin to LVM or ZFS for simplifying this.
NetBSD's slogan is " [25]Of course it runs NetBSD ," but in recent years, Linux has rivaled that. That is already starting to go away, meaning that the balance will start swinging back in NetBSD's favor. It will support more platforms than Linux or FreeBSD, and support more hardware than OpenBSD while remaining simpler than both. It even has [26]limited support for ZFS . Of course, it also remains free from systemd, Wayland, Snap, Flatpak, OStree, and all those other controversial parts of modern Linux. This combination of attributes may yet win it new admirers. ®
Get our [27]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_11_0_release_process
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/17/30yo_netbsd_releases_v10/
[3] https://www.netbsd.org/releases/formal-10/NetBSD-10.1.html
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJIqh9VLpITvPuNhV1CteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.netbsd.org/ports/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJIqh9VLpITvPuNhV1CteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJIqh9VLpITvPuNhV1CteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.netbsd.org/ports/#ports-tier1
[9] https://www.netbsd.org/ports/#ports-tier2
[10] https://xenbits.xen.org/docs/4.6-testing/misc/pvh.html
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2018/07/11/xen_4_11_pvh_guest_type/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJIqh9VLpITvPuNhV1CteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://man.netbsd.org/heartbeat.9
[14] https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/riscv/
[15] https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/release-notes/issues.en.html#i386-reduced-support
[16] https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-announce/2024-February/000117.html
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/kde_linux_prealpha/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/canonical_drops_openprinting_lead/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/geeks_aghast_at_guru_gpu/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/31/ubuntu_tpm_fde/
[21] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-x86-Removing-Old-CPUs-v2
[22] https://lwn.net/Articles/1023575/
[23] https://www.openbsd.org/plat.html
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/10/version_76_openbsd_of_theseus/
[25] https://www.netbsd.org/about/portability.html
[26] https://wiki.netbsd.org/zfs/
[27] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/