= Release Notes for HelenOS 0.7.0 =

HelenOS ''0.7.0 (Parabolic Potassium)'' was released on ''April 4, 2017'' and represents a major release with lots of new features and bug fixes.

This document contains a summary of changes made to HelenOS since release [wiki:ReleaseNotes/0.6.0 0.6.0].

== Special Notes for this Release ==

 * This release represents the first step in the planned switch to the more agile bi-annual release cycle. HelenOS is still an experimental operating system at this point in time and support for many platforms and hardware devices is not production-ready. For the time being, the agile bi-annual release cycle might therefore produce releases that are slightly less "polished" in certain aspects, but it is also a driving force towards turning HelenOS into a production-ready operating system in the near future.

== Features Introduced in This Release ==

=== General ===
 * Improved support for the sun4u machines
 * Added basic support for user space paging
 * Many bugs discovered and removed thanks to verification tools
 * Improved dynamic linking
   * Dynamic linking is now enabled by default on ia32
 * Improved the IPC abstractions by introducing interface types

=== Kernel ===
 * The {{{SYS_TLS_SET}}} syscall for configuring thread-local storage has been removed in favor of user space-driven TLS management

=== Services and Drivers ===
 * USB support revamped
   * Added support for USB 2.0
   * {{{uhcirh}}} driver removed as its functionality moved to {{{uhci}}} driver
 * Intel HD Audio recording support (experimental)
 * Completely new, unified partitioning architecture
   * Partitions are now enumerated automatically
   * {{{fdisk}}} utility replaces {{{hdisk}}} (vastly improved user experience, all changes are applied to running system state)

=== File Systems ===
 * Many ext4 improvements and bug fixes

=== Networking ===
 * [wiki:NetworkAPITutorial Transport layer API] was completely redesigned/reimplemented
   * Improved connection stability
   * No longer imitating BSD sockets
 * Added basic support for Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) network devices and authentication methods

=== Applications ===
 * {{{sysinst}}} prototype installer to [wiki:UsersGuide/Installation install HelenOS on a hard disk]

=== Libraries ===
 * libmath expanded to cover all C89 math functions (only generic/non-optimized implementation), including single-precision variants from C99
 * Optimizations of the heap memory allocator

=== Miscellaneous ===
 * XCW (Cross Compiler Wrapper) tools
    * Can be used by out-of-tree application to cross-compile for HelenOS
    * The application is written against native HelenOS (non-libposix) environment
    * The application's build system is aware it is cross-compiling for HelenOS

== Regressions in This Release ==
 * Support for sparc32 machines (LEON3 CPU) has been removed due to the lack of proper maintenance (no hardware or easily accessible emulators avaiable)

== Fixed Logged Bugs & Enhancements ==
  * For the list of all logged defects fixed in this release, see this [query:status=closed&resolution=fixed&milestone=0.7.0&type=defect report].
  * For the list of all logged enhancements integrated in this release, see this [query:status=closed&resolution=fixed&milestone=0.7.0&type=enhancement report].

== Known Bugs ==
 * For the list of known bugs still not fixed in this release, see this [report:3 report].
 * For the list of all open tickets, see this [report:1 report].