## Ongoing DragonFly News

### 2.4.1 Released, 01-Oct-2009!

The [[DragonFly 2.4.1 release|release24]] is now available!  With tons of new features and improvements.

### 2.5.x Development news, 08-Feb-2010!

The current development branch is testing our new swapcache feature which allows a SSD configured as
swap to also be used to cache clean filesystem data (not just anonymous memory).  The feature
utilizes bandwidth-controlled writing of clean data to the SSD and will then read the data back
from the SSD instead of hitting your far slower hard drive.  The SSD acts almost like extended
memory.  It can be used to cache file data and/or meta-data.  The swapcache can be used for a wide
variety of purposes..

### Summer of Code 2009 participation

DragonFly participated in Google's [Summer of Code](http://socghop.appspot.com/org/home/google/gsoc2009/dragonflybsd) program for 2009.  Sample code from the completed student projects is available [from Google's repository](http://socghop.appspot.com/org/home/google/gsoc2009/dragonflybsd).

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## What is DragonFly BSD?

DragonFly belongs to the same class of operating system as BSD and Linux
and is based on the same UNIX ideals and APIs.  DragonFly gives the BSD
base an opportunity to grow in an entirely different direction from the one
taken in the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD series.

The DragonFly project's
ultimate goal is to provide native clustering support in the kernel.
This involves the creation of a sophisticated cache management
framework for filesystem namespaces, file spaces, and VM spaces, which
allows heavily interactive programs to run across multiple machines with
cache coherency fully guaranteed in all respects.  This also involves being
able to chop up resources, including the cpu by way of a controlled VM
context, for safe assignment to unsecured third-party clusters over the
internet (though the security of such clusters itself might be in doubt,
the first and most important thing is for systems donating resources to not
be made vulnerable through their donation).

For more information, visit the [[History|history]] page.