Truth! 😂

#openbsd #pizza #bsd

@justine

Heya! I've been daily-driving it for nearly a month on my main at-home laptop (Thinkpad X260).

It's pretty great! ZFS is darn near bulletproof, and after some initial challenges of getting wifi and GUI configured, it was pretty "boring"... until I tried upgrading to 15.0, lol

Figured out how to roll back to 14.3, and I'm now waiting for 15.1 before I try again (although I believe the issues I had have now been resolved, but I'm still going to wait ;)

Package availability is amazing (better than Debian in some cases!), and most things compile without any issues, although some things that don't have very well-written Makefiles are iffy and I got stuck.

Been having fun with Dosbox-X, playing games I loved 20-30 years ago. I couldn't get the Linux version of Kerbal Space Program to run under compat_linux, but I didn't really expect it to.

#OpenBSD definitely gets my vote for noob-friendly #BSD, since it has X11 in the base install, and it configures itself, but I now have sway (Wayland) running under #FreeBSD just as if I were still on Linux, so as long as someone is willing to skim through the pertinent parts of the handbook, it's a great OS.

The only downsides to #FreeBSD vs. Linux is that S3 resume takes a little longer (8 seconds instead of 1-3 seconds), and I have occasional hiccups, which I'm sometimes not able to recover from. Loading some websites in Firefox will make everything hang for several seconds at times (even though I'm launching Firefox via nice (1)), and there are some times that sway never quite recovers from S3 suspend, although that's rare. The good thing is that sometimes it will catch the power button and shut down cleanly, and even when it doesn't, #ZFS is so bulletproof that it just takes it all in stride.

There are occasional Linuxisms that feel a bit odd, like some of my packages (the swaync notification system and the duckstation console emulator are notable examples) require #pulseaudio of all things, which sometimes eats up my CPU. That's... really weird to me. I liked how minimal sndio on OpenBSD is.

Both major BSDs have very sane syntax for the config file that governs Wifi access points, and that's very refreshing to me after using a TUI to join networks on #Debian (although it's definitely possible to uninstall #NetworkManager on Debian and use the native interface config files, but they're not as nice/simple as the BSDs').

One really fun (if a bit cartoonish) way of comparing the BSD philosophy to the Linux philosophy is to look at doas vs sudo, specifically man doas.conf, then man sudoers.

The manpage for the sudoers file is pretty long and convoluted, as is the syntax for the file itself. doas.conf is super brief and to-the-point, and its manpage is pretty concise.

I think once they add the setup tool for GUIs to the FreeBSD setup wizard, that will be a real game-changer.

P.S., I haven't really daily-driven OpenBSD in a while, but I'm planning on getting an adapter so I can power my OpenBSD Thinkpad X200t off of a power bank, instead of the very dodgy third-party battery, so I can experiment with OpenBSD some more. I know the latest version has fixed the problems I was having with Emoji support, so I think that OS deserves another look. With the little bit of experimentation I've done in the last week, I've been pleasantly surprised with even Firefox' performance on that little Core 2 Duo. The only bummer about OpenBSD to me is the lack of ZFS or any other modern filesystem, so the occasional power losses or hang-ups become much more dangerous.

Edit: minor clarifications

Playing the game I enjoyed playing 30 years ago...

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Begin_-_A_Tactical_Starship_Simulation_1989

#DOS #DOSGaming #FreeBSD #FreeBSDGaming #BSD #BSDGaming #RunBSD #RetroGaming #swaywm #LossyPNG #DOSBox #DosBoxX

Alt...

The conclusion screen of Begin 1.65 by Clockwork Software (1989) Running under DOSBox X on FreeBSD on my Thinkpad x265 Text: From: Starfleet Command Subject: Tactical Starship Simulation. After careful consideration of the results of this simulation, we believe you possess an aptitude for tactics. Survivors Reported: Franklen: 500 Ketoi: 200 Dragon: (destroyed)

Did you know you can still get the src for the DICE C compiler (68000 #ANSI C #compiler) written for the #Amiga in the early 90's by Matthew Dillon?
Itll run on #BSD or #Linux host and can generate generic 68000 output that doesn't have to be targeted to the Amiga. It contains all utilities required to compile, assemble, link, rom, etc, and it's BSD licensed. dmake is needed to compile it on #Unix. It will generate 68K code, Amiga bin, obj, etc
https://apollo.backplane.com/FreeSrc/
#RetroComputing #Commodore

@ajroach42 @bob_zim

That's a very good expectation. :D

What kind of hardware are you looking at using #BSD on?

When you don't have a whole morning to allocate to installing #FreeBSD just to test the #BSD build of #Emulsion, you just use #NomadBSD in #QEMU 😎

Alt...

NomadBSD

@csgraves

I mean, I didn't become a #BSD user overnight. It was an itch in the back of my mind for several years. When I had spare hardware that I wasn't using for anything else, I slapped #OpenBSD on it, and it mostly just worked. Then I had the pleasure of learning a brand new-to-me system, and adapting my various scripts to it.

A couple years later, when I had an opportunity to spend a little less than $200 on another laptop, I asked for a recommendation for one that worked best with #NetBSD, and was recommended the Thinkpad X260, which I'm typing on now.

If it's something you're curious about trying, don't make it an all-or-nothing zero-sum thing. It's a slow burn into increasing nerdiness. 😅

I must say, however, that my exploration of BSD was spurred on by the fusillade of non-sequiturs and logical fallacies I received whenever I questioned the wisdom of trends like #systemd-everything in the Linux space.

Two things that would've made my #Thinkpad x260 a perfect laptop:

• A little nicer screen (>1366x768, not TN (that's on me for not reading the ebay description more closely))
• A backlit keyboard, or heck, even a derpy ThinkLight XD

Otherwise, this is a pretty sweet bit of kit. 6th gen i5, 8GiB RAM, 256GB SSD, responsive keyboard, TouchPoint (ThinkNubbin) and touchpad, internal and external battery, roughly 6.5-8 hours battery life (I got 5:21:00 active usage yesterday and it only got down to 48% on the little internal battery (0% on the external) when I was done (it estimated 1:20:00 remaining)), super friendly to both #Linux and #BSD. Oh, and it's dirt cheap right now.

@justine @cienmilojos

Heh, the struggle is real!

#BSD all the things! XD

@cienmilojos

I'm not saying I'd stick with it, because I like i3wm/sway too much, but I gotta say that the stock #NetBSD GUI/X11 setup is the coolest/cleanest/slickest of the #BSD OSes I've tried so far. :D

#OpenBSD's is fine, but a little too colorful. #FreeBSD of course, doesn't have a stock/default GUI... yet!

Haven't tried #DragonflyBSD yet.

#POLL Results:

44 people are in deep denial about their existential dread, and should consult a counselor and read #Kierkegaard immediately 😁
139 people like teh pretty tings, and can't be bothered
188 people have started down the path towards enlightment
354 people are cool_kids
92 people are very_cool_kids
55 people laugh at your inadequate security model
27 people can run a server on a bit of bailing wire and a microcontroller from 1987 — fear them.
26 people are keeping Gassée's dream alive, and are plenny cool in my book
4 people are totally cool, and totally in a class by themselves
and 21 people kinda scare me, but I'd like to know more. 🤣

#humor #humour #houmor #houmour

#Windows #MacOS #Linux #CommandLine #BSD #RunBSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #Haiku #HaikuOS #BeOS #Amiga #Workbench #AROS #AmigaOS #Plan9 #9Front #TempleOS

P.S., wherever you find yourself, you're awesome. This is all for fun.

@grahamperrin @pythno

Well, we have a #BSD #Barista ( @stefano ), so maybe BSD is a #CoffeeShop? ;)

#hashtags for exposure:

#windows #MacOS #Linux #BSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #Haiku #HaikuOS #BeOS #Amiga #Workbench #AROS #TempleOS #Boost #BoostsAppreciated #BoostPlease #PleaseBoost

Ok, sorry for all that. 😂

@erikarn

Well, I definitely appreciate the primer, and thanks for all you're doing in #BSD land!

So do you think something simple like

if ((rssi>=50)); then
    quality="100%"
elif (rssi<=0)); then
    quality="0%"
else
    quality="$((rssi*2))%"
fi

would be ok for now?

I might see if I can make a patch for i3status. I don't know much C, but, well... I either succeed, and provide a patch, or fail, and continue using my script. No huge loss 😅

@daftaupe @stefano

(reading more of the context of this toot)

I think the thing that attracts me to the #BSD world is just what Theo's saying there: love for Unix. Not necessarily a love for everything that unix is or was 30 years ago (looking at video of old UNIX guis, even IRIX is pretty jarring today. There were a lot of things that were extremely user-un-friendly that are far better today), but at least an understanding that "we" came from somewhere, and we have that past as a reference point: not one of slavish devotion, but of acknowledging what worked in the past, and not wanting to part from it without reason.

@washbear @s0x41 @golemwire

> I'm not paid enough for the torture of having my work broken and invalidated every few months. You can build and install an X window manager from 1989 btw.

I wish more people would understand this.

The Linux "folks" (whoever they actually are) play patty-cake with constantly changing APIs and standards, and users are bewildered that other projects are falling behind.

This model of governance (for lack of a better word) leaves much to be desired.

#Linux #BSD

Interesting...

It seems that #OpenBSD is the only #BSD that has S4 suspend-to-disk/hibernation working thus far.
I haven't tried it on my OpenBSD machine yet. Honestly, it boots fast enough (and I only use it for writing), that I never even thought of it. XD

@jase

Its been a lot of fun!

My first experiments in #BSD were with #OpenBSD nearly three years ago, and I had many enjoyable sleepless nights porting my shell scripts and configs over to that platform. 😂

@jbz

I relate to the gripes about command line flags, but not at all about the community.
At least on the #Fediverse, the #FreeBSD community has been wonderful. The #BSD community overall has been absolutely great.

I mean, just look at the number of people who only run BSD on servers, and run either windows or more likely macOS on their personal machines. I've never seen any of them derided or gatekept, even when I myself felt like slipping in a little "why ain't'cha dogfooding it, brah?" comment here or there. 😅

A brief look at FreeBSD // Yorick Peterse

https://yorickpeterse.com/articles/a-brief-look-at-freebsd/

#freebsd #bsd #opensource

@jpaskaruk

I think everyone who is a big Linux fan should always manage a BSD machine or a dozen.

I love Linux, and have daily-driven it since 2019 (and before that, from 2000 to 2003).

But Linux is a behemoth, and is driven by very odd processes. Why is systemd replacing all of userspace? Why are we doing binary log files like some kind of cursed windows? Why is ifconfig being replaced with a totally new tool with totally new syntax/options?

There's never good reasons for these, only "Someone decided," or "well, that's what we're doing now," or my personal "favorite," "if you don't like it, code your own!"

After seeing Linux reinvent every wheel every 5 years or so, after seeing HOWTO articles from two years ago being made worthless by yet another humongous change, sometimes it's nice to be in stolid, stodgy, "boring" old #BSD land.

So... @fedora has made a policy explicitly allowing AI code. So I have to change my home distro.

@gentoo and @netbsd both have specific policies against it, but I ain't about doing a Gentoo install (sorry, guys, I love you for this, but I need a binary first distro), and NetBSD ain't great for gaming AFAIK.

So... any other Distros wanna step up and do the right thing? @archlinux? @opensuse? @debian? #VoidLinux? @alpinelinux?

Just a public statement that says "No, we don't want that crap" would be plenty --- I understand the difficulty of enforcing the policy, but setting it as a community/commit standard would go a long way towards making a lot of us feel better.

(Boost for visibility, please?)

#AI #Linux #Distro #BSD

@SamuraiSakura @inlovewithpda

Honestly, #OpenBSD is a way better starter-#BSD than people realize.

#FreeBSD has a friendlier installer (TUI vs. prompts), but OpenBSD currently gives you a more usable system, post-install: (X11/"xenocara") is in the base install, unlike #FreeBSD.

@inlovewithpda

#BSD! BSD! BEE ESS DEE! 😅

#RunBSD

It's kinda buried in this announcement, but the option to add a KDE desktop is coming to the FreeBSD installer.

Reading the whole monthly update, there's a lot going on with desktop for FreeBSD overall.

https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/blob/main/monthly-updates/2025-09.md

#BSD #RunBSD #FreeBSD #KDE

@AnachronistJohn @dendrobatus_azureus

I love the fact that you're more familiar with BSD than Linux.

#BSD deserves more love.

And as much as I love Linux, I dislike what seems to be gradually happening to its userspace. It's starting to feel more like CMD.EXE than any kind of #Unix.

But it's not all bad. /sys is pretty cool, and technically more unixy (plan9-y) than sysctl.
The systemd commands feel super clunky, though. Overcomplicated and inelegant. And more and more stuff is assuming full color terminals (and dark mode) and 132-ish columns, bleh.

But overall, I love Linux for doing work, and BSDs for enjoying unixy feelings and nostalgia.

FreeBSD Graphics Stack Developer Position | FreeBSD Foundation

｢ The FreeBSD Foundation is seeking a Graphics Stack Developer to contribute to our Laptop Support and Usability Project — a major initiative focused on enhancing the “out of the box” experience for FreeBSD users worldwide ｣

https://freebsdfoundation.org/open-positions/freebsd-graphics-stack-developer-position/

#fedihire #freebsd #bsd

Instead of piping space-separated output to print the first column, instead of using "awk '{print $1}'" or "cut -d ' ' -f 1", use your shell's array syntax.

EG:

$ a=(prinf foo | sha256sum)
$ printf "$a[1]\n"

No external tools needed.

#unix #bsd #gnu #linux

Installing 2.11BSD: Configuring terminals and users

https://www.retrocmp.com/how-tos/installing-211bsd-unix-on-pdp-1144/124-installing-211bsd-configuring-terminals-and-users

#bsd #retroleum #hardware #terminals

#homework

What OS should I use on this iMac next?
#retrocomputing #linux #bsd #macos

#smolbsd #bsd #netbsd

I became aware of this project:

https://smolbsd.org

It looks very interesting -- certainly something I'll try on a rainy day...

Just to know, what make you switch from Windows/Mac OS to Linux/BSD ?

#Linux #BSD #Computing

Can #rakulang learn anything from the #ziglang community about how to grow its user base? #programming #linux #bsd #perl

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about my work on OpenJDK on FreeBSD, and to everyone for making it an enjoyable experience. Hope to see you all next time!

#ebc2025 #bsd #community #eurobsdcon

#ebc2025 #eurobsdcon #bsd #OS/2

https://michal.sapka.pl/2025/shell-piping-concatenated-commands/

#unix #unix #bsd #shell