This section describes the most user-visible new or changed features in FreeBSD since 6.0-RELEASE. In general, changes described here are unique to the 7-STABLE branch unless specifically marked as [MERGED] features.

Typical release note items document recent security advisories issued after 6.0-RELEASE, new drivers or hardware support, new commands or options, major bug fixes, or contributed software upgrades. They may also list changes to major ports/packages or release engineering practices. Clearly the release notes cannot list every single change made to FreeBSD between releases; this document focuses primarily on security advisories, user-visible changes, and major architectural improvements.