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       agreements, and other legal arrangements that require a recognized legal   
       entity   
      
   Even though the summer months tend to be slower, we accomplished a lot of work   
   and you will see that in our Q3 report! Some highlights include raising over   
   $135,000 from individual donors, and kicking off two major projects. First,   
   thanks to a large investment from the Sovereign Tech Fund, we will be doing   
   even more to improve our infrastructure. Second, thanks to a large investment   
   by Quantum Leap Research and the Foundation, we will be working to accelerate a   
   FreeBSD on Modern Laptops project. We also continued work on the Alpha-Omega   
   funded project, hired a userland software developer, and opened a job position   
   for a solutions specialist.   
      
   As you will see below, spreading the word about FreeBSD through advocacy and   
   community is still an important part of our mission. Over the summer, we   
   sponsored EuroBSDCon, and the upcoming FreeBSD and OpenZFS Summits, and   
   provided travel grants to around eight FreeBSD contributors to attend   
   EuroBSDCon. Our advocacy team was busy producing content that promotes the   
   benefits and strengths of FreeBSD, why companies are using FreeBSD, and why you   
   should use FreeBSD if you care about security. We also promoted work within the   
   Project and Foundation on social media.   
      
   During EuroBSDCon, Foundation and Core Team members met to discuss Core’s   
   questions as they navigate what they want to accomplish during their term. We   
   identified 2 key areas to work on in the near term:   
      
    1. Financial reporting transparency - Break out operating system improvements   
       spending in our quarterly reports. We are working with our accountant so   
       that starting in 2025, we can report how much we are spending on certain   
       projects and key areas, like laptop, enterprise, security…​ In the   
       meantime, we will add notes to our financial reports that document which   
       projects are included in the OS Improvement expense category. We are aware   
       that we have not posted financials this year. Our accounting team is   
       introducing us to improved reporting, while integrating our books into a   
       new accounting system.   
      
    2. The projects we are funding are not mentioned on the Project’s website.   
   We   
       document these on our website, because we want to show our donors where   
       their financial contributions are being spent. We recognize that we need to   
       also add documentation about these projects on FreeBSD.org, so we will   
       investigate how to better connect our software development work with the   
       Project.   
      
   We are funding a lot of software development work to advance, improve, and keep   
   FreeBSD secure. We received funding for some of this work, but most of it is   
   being funded by your donations and our investments. Our purpose is to focus on   
   the long-term sustainability of FreeBSD. To do this, we need more companies   
   stepping in to help fund our efforts. Our investments will only carry on this   
   work for a year or two at most. If your company relies on FreeBSD, please   
   consider giving a financial contribution so we can ensure it stays the secure,   
   reliable, and innovative platform you depend on. Not sure how to go about   
   asking? Please reach out. We can help you navigate the process.   
      
   Please go here to make a donation: https://freebsdfoundation.org/donate/. To   
   find out more about our Partnership Program, go here:   
   https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-donors/freebsd-foundation-part   
   ership-program/.   
      
   OS Improvements   
      
   During the third quarter of 2024, 263 src, 37 ports, and 11 doc tree commits   
   identified The FreeBSD Foundation as a sponsor.   
      
   Several members of the FreeBSD Foundation’s development team attended the   
   FreeBSD Developer Summit in Dublin, Ireland prior to EuroBSDCon 2024. You can   
   watch a video of the Hello From the Foundation talk to open the Summit, when:   
      
     • Deb Goodkin introduced the FreeBSD Foundation   
      
     • Joe Mingrone introduced members of the development team and said a few   
       words about FreeBSD’s 2024 Google Summer Code campaign   
      
     • Ed Maste described some of the current or recently completed Foundation   
       development projects.   
      
   Alice Sowerby, who recently began supporting the Foundation in Technical   
   Program Management role, gave a talk to introduce the CHAOSS (Community Health   
   Analytics for Open Source Software) project and how to start collecting and   
   working with community health metrics.   
      
   The Foundation, along with new funding and investment partners, is currently   
   supporting four major projects.   
      
     • The first, partially funded by Alpha-Omega, is to improve FreeBSD   
   security.   
       As part of this effort, the Foundation enlisted Synacktiv to run a code   
       audit on two significant subsystems: bhyve and Capsicum. For details, refer   
       to the dedicated Capsicum and Bhyve Code Audit report entry.   
      
     • The second project, jointly funded by AMD and the Foundation, is to   
   develop   
       an AMD IOMMU driver for FreeBSD. The impetus for the project was to better   
       support large core AMD systems. However, the driver will be useful in   
       different scenarios when interrupt remapping is required. The work is   
       nearing completion, and developer Konstantin Belousov is testing the driver   
       on some of AMD’s large-core-count systems before committing.   
      
     • The third project, backed by an investment from the Sovereign Tech Fund,   
   is   
       to improve FreeBSD through five key sub-projects:   
      
         □ Zero Trust Builds: Enhance tooling and processes   
      
         □ CI/CD Automation: Streamline software delivery and operations   
      
         □ Reduce Technical Debt: Implement tools and processes to keep   
   technical   
           debt low   
      
         □ Security Controls: Modernize and extend security artifacts, including   
           the FreeBSD Ports and Package Collection, to assist with regulatory   
           compliance   
      
         □ SBOM Improvements: Enhance and implement new tooling and processes   
   for   
           FreeBSD SBOM   
      
       To reduce technical debt, we have partnered with Bitergia to analyze and   
       assess our open Bugzilla bugs. By implementing improved issue management   
       processes and establishing open-source tooling for the long term, our goal   
       is to achieve and sustain a manageable bug backlog. The remaining four   
       sub-projects will begin in 2025.   
      
     • The fourth project, which will be funded by both the Foundation and   
   Quantum   
       Leap Research, is to improve FreeBSD laptop usability. We have begun (or   
       will soon start) supporting developers working in the following areas:   
      
         □ Enhanced wireless chipset support: Expanding chipset compatibility to   
           ensure reliable wireless connectivity and support for newer wireless   
           standards.   
      
         □ Power management: Implementing modern power-saving states (such as   
           s2idle and s0ix) to improve battery life and energy efficiency.   
      
         □ Graphics enhancements: Improving support for Intel and AMD graphics   
   by   
           integrating the latest DRM drivers.   
      
         □ Audio improvements: Enhancing audio routing, headphone switching, and   
           digital microphone (DMIC) functionality for a more user-friendly   
           multimedia experience.   
      
         □ Laptop-specific hardware features: Addressing specialty buttons,   
           touchpad gestures, and other unique hardware components found in modern   
           laptops.   
      
   FreeBSD completed our 20th consecutive year participating in Google Summer of   
      
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