9front "THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN" Released

On September 25, 2019, the 9front operating system released a new version labeled "THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN." The revised affinewarp API is now widely used for scaling and zooming in various programs. Additionally, the gdbfs(4) tool allows users to mount a remote gdb as a /proc.

Multiple installation media are available for different platforms, including PC, Raspberry Pi, MNT Reform, and QEMU. For personal computers, the .iso file can be burned to a CD or directly written to USB media using the dd command. Raspberry Pi and MNT Reform users can use the corresponding .img file by directly writing it to an SD card.

The 9front project offers several download options through provided links, including iso.gz.torrent, amd64.iso.gz.torrent, amd64.qcow2.gz.torrent, arm64.qcow2.gz.torrent, honeycomb.img.gz.torrent, pi.img.gz.torrent, pi3.img.gz.torrent, reform.img.gz.torrent, and the Git repository for further information. Users can also access the dash 1 manual, a pdf file detailing the operating system's features, and listen to relevant mp3 music.

Additional tools and fixes have been included in this release to improve the overall user experience. Some of these enhancements include:

- 9boot: A tool that allows users to stop the PXE stack manually before booting a system.

- mkfile: An installation utility that installs "bootaa64.efi" into the /arm64 directory and creates a 9pc64 kernel test image by default.

- Auxiliary drivers (aux/acpi, aux/vga, devaudio, devdraw, devether, devip, devkbd, and devmouse) that address various issues like ACPI table parsing, VGA handling, volume writing, and device tracking.

- Networking improvements (ether8169, ether82557, ether82563, and ether82563) to better support multiple hardware devices and fix transmission issues.

- Kernel enhancements (kernel) that allow building without specific modules, fix errors, and improve memory management.

- Network stack improvements (libaml, libauth, libc/9sys, and libc/test/pow.c) to enhance the overall performance and reliability of the operating system.

- Display and graphics support (libdraw and libmemdraw) with increased decimal fixed-point precision and additional drawing features.

- Miscellaneous bug fixes and optimizations across various subsystems to ensure smooth operation of the 9front operating system.