14 DAY TRIAL // NetBSD is a free, fast, secure, and highly portable UNIX-like open source OS that is able to run on a wide range of platforms, from large-scale servers and desktop systems to handheld and embedded devices. The system has just been updated, and as usual, it comes with a fair amount of changes.
The 6.1.x branch of NetBSD has been around for some time and this is the fifth maintenance release for it. Even if the word maintenance sounds boring, users will still find some interesting fixes nonetheless. If you already have this operating system installed, now it's a good time to upgrade.
The NetBSD project is also very interesting because it's one of the few that maintain two very close branches of the OS. The 6.1.5 version is now the most advanced, but users also have access to the new 6.0.6 branch. The two are not all that different, but developers chose to keep them both alive.
Latest version is mostly about vulnerabilities
Like any other project, NetBSD also has its vulnerabilities and they need to be fixed. Besides the regular updates that are provided from time to time, some of the exploits and issues need special attention. For example, OpenSSL has been patched to fix numerous problems, a memory leak in the setsockopt system call has been fixed, and a few vulnerabilities for the libXfont package have been corrected.
Also, a number of kernel panics have been resolved, an X server crash that occurred on exit has been corrected, and two overflows and a memory corruption bug have been fixed in ptyfs and umapfs.
Funding is still needed
Just because the NetBSD updates arrive all the time, it doesn't mean that the system has no need for community support. The project needs funding to "improve the network stack concurrency and performance, to continue the development of modern file systems and improvement of existing ones, to bring new features that are useful in embedded environments, such as high resolution timers and execute in place (XIP) support, and to provide better testing and quality assurance."
A complete list of changes can be found in the official announcement. You can download NetBSD 6.1.5 right now from Softpedia, but you have to keep in mind that this is not a regular image. You can't just plug it in VirtualBox. The NetBSD devs provide dedicated images for various platforms and they also offer a long list of supported devices.