0.9.0 release notes

content/news/release-0.9.0.md

@@ -4,14 +4,19 @@ author = "Jeremy Soller and Ron Williams"
 date = "2024-04-18"
 +++
 
-(The following image needs to be uploaded, like the previous release it should show the Jeremy computers running the current Redox version)
+(The computers image needs to be uploaded, like the previous release it should show the Jeremy computers running the current Redox version)
 
-<a href="/img/release/0.9.0.jpg"><img class="img-responsive" src="/img/release/0.9.0.jpg"/></a>
+![Orbital in the 0.9.0 version](/img/screenshot/orbital-0.9.0.png)
+![Computers running the 0.9.0 version](/img/release/computers-0.9.0.png)
 
 ## Overview
 
 It's been a while since we had our last release, but we have been heads-down working hard this whole time,
-and Release 0.9.0 is packed with many improvements and cleanup. Here are just a few of the highlights!
+and Release 0.9.0 is packed with many improvements and cleanup. 
+
+We would like to thank all maintainers and contributors a lot by their hard work that make this release possible.
+
+Here are just a few of the highlights!
 
 - Huge improvements to the portability of Linux/BSD programs
 - Phase-One of the creation of a stable API
@@ -20,19 +25,27 @@ and Release 0.9.0 is packed with many improvements and cleanup. Here are just a
 - Wide-ranging clean-up and debugging of the kernel, drivers and PCIe support
 - Improved USB HID support
 - Improved filesystem performance
+- Our [porting strategy](https://www.redox-os.org/news/porting-strategy/) was explained
 - VirtIO drivers for better performance in virtual machines
 - Relibc (our C library implementation) is now almost 100% Rust and much more complete
 - The `libm` is now 100% written-in-Rust
 - Significant progress on the ARM64 (Aarch64) support, including partial support for Raspberry Pi 3B+
 - Contain (Redox's sandboxing driver) has been expanded and is available as a demo (`desktop-contain.toml`)
-- Slint, Iced and winit GUI libraries support the Redox Orbital Window Manager
-- Key COSMIC Desktop programs available as demos
-- GNU Nano and [Helix](https://helix-editor.com/) editors now supported
+- Slint, Iced and winit GUI libraries support the Redox's display server (Orbital)
+- Most COSMIC Desktop programs were ported
+- GNU Nano and [Helix](https://helix-editor.com/) editors were ported
 - [RustPython](https://rustpython.github.io/) is enabled by default
 - New build system options and improvements
 - Lots of new documentation, a complete book review and cleanup, almost 100% up-to-date information
 - A [FAQ](https://www.redox-os.org/faq/) was added to the website
 - A [developer FAQ](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-07-developer-faq.html) was added to the book
+- The Redox software ports system was almost completely documented
+- The [Libraries and APIs](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-06-libraries-apis.html) page documented our system APIs and libraries
+- The [Performance](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-10-performance.html) page documented how to profile Redox to improve the performance
+- Some sections of the website FAQ were copied to the book for better reading and easy to find information
+- [Feature comparison](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch04-11-features.html) tables were added to the book
+- The [References](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-08-references.html) page documents the best references to learn Rust, OS development and computer science
+- Now the website say that we aim to be a complete Linux/BSD alternative
 
 ## Stability and Performance Improvements
 
@@ -54,7 +67,7 @@ Our toolchains received some updates and currently our Rust, C and C++ toolchain
 
 Beyond the toolchain updates, we also updated important cross-platform libraries used by most programs and some important programs.
 
-## Rust-first programs!
+## Rust-first Program Porting!
 
 We focus on Rust programs as they are more easy to port, Ribbon quickly ported hundreds of emerging Rust programs in 2023.
 
@@ -62,7 +75,13 @@ We focus on Rust programs as they are more easy to port, Ribbon quickly ported h
 
 Ribbon also partially-ported the classic and widely-used C and C++ programs and libraries, he focused to package the most used (and best) programs of the Linux/BSD world.
 
-Currently there are 1,646 work-in-progress software ports, we need to write cross-compilation scripts and port/update some libraries to make them work.
+Currently there are around 1,700 work-in-progress software ports, we need to write cross-compilation scripts and port/update some libraries to make them work.
+
+## Relibc Improvements
+
+The Redox contributors improved relibc a lot, from new functions to important bug fixes.
+
+This increased our software compatibility and fixed many programs, from Rust to C/C++
 
 ## Better ARM Support
 
@@ -92,6 +111,11 @@ Anhad Singh from the [Aero](https://github.com/Andy-Python-Programmer/aero) proj
 
 He wrote some VirtIO drivers and improved the VirtIO GPU 2D acceleration to speed up our QEMU performance.
 
+You can read about his work on the following posts:
+
+- [RSoC: virtio drivers - 1](https://www.redox-os.org/news/rsoc-virtio-1/)
+- [RSoC: virtio drivers - 2](https://www.redox-os.org/news/rsoc-virtio-2/)
+
 ## Build System Improvements
 
 We would like to thank Ron Williams, bjorn3, Jeremy and 4lDO2 for their massive improvements to our build system configuration and tooling.
@@ -112,6 +136,26 @@ We are glad to say that our website and book answer most of the end-user and dev
 
 You can read about the Ribbon's documentation adventure on [this](https://www.redox-os.org/news/documentation-improvements/) post and on the monthly updates.
 
+## This Month in Redox
+
+We started monthly updates in 2024 to improve our status report for the community and bring more excitement to Redox, these posts offer more details about the changes present on this post.
+
+You can read them on the following links:
+
+- [This Month in Redox - January 2024](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-240131/)
+- [This Month in Redox - February 2024](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-240229/)
+- [This Month in Redox - March 2024](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-240330/)
+- [This Month in Redox - April 2024](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-240430/)
+- [This Month in Redox - May 2024](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-240531/)
+- [This Month in Redox - June 2024](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-240630/)
+- [This Month in Redox - July 2024](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-240731/)
+
+## Software Showcase
+
+We started a series of videos showing many programs running on Redox!
+
+<iframe width="800" height="640" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s-gxAsBTPxA?si=EbIRLwIrnuiwfvYZ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
 ## Matrix
 
 In 2023 we migrated from Mattermost to Matrix to fix some management problems, this big change helped us to improve many aspects of our community interaction.
@@ -142,7 +186,7 @@ Remember to verify the images checksum with the `sha256sum` tool, use [this](htt
 
 ### Demo
 
-A 1536 MiB image containing the Orbital desktop environment as well as pre-installed demo programs.
+A 1536 MiB image containing the Orbital desktop environment as well as pre-installed demonstration programs.
 
 - [Real Hardware Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_demo_x86_64_*_livedisk.iso)
 - [Virtual Machine Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_demo_x86_64_*_harddrive.img)
@@ -195,6 +239,7 @@ The most important changes are shown below.
 ### RedoxFS
 
 - The reading and writting performance was improved a lot by the introduction of the "records" concept, where RedoxFS use an optimal block size for the context switch
+- The context switch roundtrips were reduced
 - The copy-on-write reliability was improved with some bugs fixed
 
 ### System API
@@ -209,7 +254,7 @@ The most important changes are shown below.
 - A lot of new functions were added to relibc, improving the software compatibility
 - Many bugs were fixed
 - Many programs started to work
-- More than 1500 programs and libraries were packaged (work-in-progress)
+- More than 1600 programs and libraries were packaged (work-in-progress)
 
 ### Build System
 
@@ -240,7 +285,7 @@ The most important changes are shown below.
 
 ## Changelog
 
-This section contains all commits since the 0.8.0 version, generated by the [changelog](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/redox/-/blob/master/changelog.sh) script:
+As many changes happened it's not possible to write everything on this post, this section contains all commits since the 0.8.0 version generated by the [changelog](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/redox/-/blob/master/changelog.sh) script:
 
 - [redox]
 - [cookbook]