AI models don’t really 'get' the BSDs. As a result, they often provide incomplete, imprecise, or flat-out wrong answers by defaulting to Linux paradigms. When it comes to illumos-based systems, they just completely lose the plot.

This is becoming a serious issue for the BSDs and illumos ecosystems. We are seeing entire websites flooded with AI-generated tutorials and guides that are totally incorrect. Most people don't realize this; they follow the instructions, fail, and then assume that the BSDs doesn't work well or are 'unstable' because they have supposedly changed since the guide was written.

Luckily, some people eventually find my blog, reach out, and finally understand what's actually going on. Others, unfortunately, end up on major social sites or comments, claiming that these systems are broken.

In 2026, one of our greatest challenges will be teaching people how to vet their sources and filter information.
And I see this as a very, very uphill battle.

#IT #SysAdmin #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #illumos #News #UnderstandingText #Disinformation

multidisplay hack for #OpenBSD, #NetBSD xenodm/xdm.

#!/bin/ksh

# Define variables at the top for easy access
readonly MULTIDISPLAY_DIRECTION="--right-of"

# find list of connected monitors to span
monitors=$(xrandr --query | awk '/[^s]connected/{print $1}')

# the first monitor found will be the primary
primary=$(echo "$monitors" | head -n 1)

# initialize the xrandr command
xrandr_cmd="xrandr --output $primary --auto --primary"

# loop through the displays, assigning them --auto and MULTIDISPLAY_DIRECTION with randr
previous=$primary
for monitor in $monitors
do
    if [ "$monitor" != "$primary" ]; then
        xrandr_cmd+=" --output $monitor --auto $MULTIDISPLAY_DIRECTION $previous"
        previous=$monitor
    fi
done

# Execute the composed xrandr command
eval "$xrandr_cmd"

could drop in to your Xsetup_0 file. written in ksh, should work in OpenBSD’s ksh and NetBSD’s ksh.

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #search #searchengine #frogfind #NetBSD #Links #unix #lynx #unix

Catch of the Day: The text terminal on NetBSD lives! 🐧

Hey Retro Fans!

Many of us use FrogFind on graphical systems like Windows 95 or Mac OS 9. But at its core, FrogFind is a text-first project. Just how well this works was proven to us today by this guest:

Links 2.8 on NetBSD!

Among the BSD operating systems (the purist cousins of Linux), NetBSD is legendary for its portability. It's not for nothing that the NetBSD community's motto is: "Of course it runs NetBSD!" Whether on old toasters, a Sega Dreamcast, or obscure server hardware—NetBSD just runs.

The fact that someone today opens a terminal under NetBSD and fires up the text-based browser "Links" (a direct relative of Lynx) to search the web via FrogFind is pure command-line romance. No flashing banners, no intrusive JavaScript, just lightning-fast, raw text on one of the cleanest UNIX derivatives in the world.

Stay purist and keep hacking on the shell!
Your FrogFind Team 🐸

Alt...

NetBSD

Still far away but not to far away from now in a country close, close by....

The European *BSD event of 2026! 😈⛳🐡

Registration is open!! 🔖

🎟️ https://tickets.eurobsdcon.org/eurobsdcon/brussels/

Sign up early and sign up lots!

While you're at it, don't forget to drop your abstract like it's hot! 🔥
https://events.eurobsdcon.org/

We are still and always looking for first-time *BSD speakers.
Whether you are just starting out or have a unique perspective to share, your voice matters!

The schedule will be published on 🗓️ 2026-07-15

For everything else, peek at https://2026.eurobsdcon.org/
More information is added all the time.

EuroBSDCon 2026 in Brussels, Belgium 🇧🇪
September 09-13, 2026

#RUNBSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #EuroBSDCon #EuroBSDCon2026 #BSD #CFP #Conference #Register

Alt...

An image of Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, sticking his head around the door, wide eyed. It has the text: Did someone say ticket?

@thezerobit

From what I’ve briefly looked into, it might even be possible to set up a root filesystem with ZFS on #netbsd. I’m not sure what the comments about memory usage are referring to—I have several VPS instances, as well as some home machines running on #OrangePi with 512MB of RAM, and they all run perfectly fine with ZFS on FreeBSD.

I think I’ll try to see how NetBSD ZFS performs in real-world conditions with 512MB🤣

https://wiki.netbsd.org/zfs

Toot from #pkgsrc/www/firefox-151.0b10 under #NetBSD/amd64-current. It is better than 150.

@veer66 #pkgsrc works on a number of different operating systems, including Linux and MacOS. You don't have to run #NetBSD to use pkgsrc 🤘

I've made more progress with getting #NetBSD running and mostly usable on my Thinkpad T580. I started a document with my notes on how to set up a usable desktop. Some of this information is missing from the NetBSD Guide, Wiki, and FAQ & HOWTOs pages. Some of it was buried deep in man pages, or found by extensively searching pkgsrc repository. https://codeberg.org/thezerobit/public_notes/src/branch/main/netbsd_notes.md

I have yet to figure out how to automatically disable the touchpad while typing.

@matthew I go with #WMonly, the leaner, the better. I use #ctwm on both #netbsd and #openbsd

@OpenComputeDesign

I honestly really like the look of the stock #NetBSD WM. ;)

Should I replace #Linux on all my computers with #NetBSD?
#BSD

I'm upgrading #NetBSD on my laptop to the latest RC (11.0 RC4) in this coffee shop, soaking up all the Wi-Fi bandwidth downloading source sets which I didn't realize are not on the install image but need to be downloaded on the fly.

Casually reading The UNIX Programming Environment by Kernighan and Pike. I've been Linuxing for nearly 30 years, so it's not like I'm a stranger to this environment, but it's nice to peruse one of its sacred texts.
#UNIX #BSD

If you are using #NetBSD please consider to donate NetBSD Foundation to keep this project running. No big money is needed, every cents matters, https://netbsd.org/donations/ #WhyIRunNetBSD I’ve already done it, and you? 🤔

@bentsukun Is there something wrong with Postfix in RC4? #NetBSD

Announcing #BSDCan 2026 Travel Grants

Deadline: Friday the 19th!

To encourage and enable more first-time and returning attendees at BSDCan 2026, this year’s travel grant is a free room for up to five nights in a shared-bathroom private suite at the 90U residences.

Full details:

https://blog.bsdcan.org/2026/05/14/announcing-bsdcan-2026-travel-grants

#FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD

iPaq H3600 bought as "genuinely untested" off eBay works without any issues. Even the battery seems to be charging. I need to find a CF card so I can slap #NetBSD on it :) #pda

NetBSD 11 RC4 is here! Huge thanks to all the devs getting this ready for the final release.

Quick reminder since we are almost halfway through the year: The NetBSD Foundation needs our help to keep things running. If you appreciate clean code, software freedom, and an OS that literally runs on anything, OS which rejects A.I. slop, please consider making a donation. Let's help them hit their 2026 goals!
Grab the RC: https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_11_0_rc4_available
Support the foundation: https://www.netbsd.org/donations/
#NetBSD #FOSS #OpenSource #antiaislop #Linux

#NetBSD 11.0 RC4 just dropped!

"We found a few more issues to fix in RC4, and also updated a lot
of bundled third party code due to security issues, including
OpenSSH, OpenSSL, Postfix, bind, xz and more.

"We would love to release this state as 11.0 soonish and hope no big
fallout will be found in this RC."

https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-11.0_RC4/

New #blog #post: Package Manager Tier List

https://rldane.space/package-manager-tier-list.html

1521 words

Note: this is a very off-the-cuff tier list, using speed as the main qualifier, but the article explains exceptions to that as it goes on.

cc: my wonderful #chorus: @joel @dm @sotolf @thedoctor @pixx @orbitalmartian @adamsdesk @krafter @roguefoam @clayton @giantspacesquid @Twizzay @stfn

(I will happily add/remove you from the chorus upon request! :)

#rlDaneWriting #blost #DeadLikeMe #Linux #BSD #RunBSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #Debian #Arch #pacman #AUR #Fedora #homebrew #flatpak #snap #OpenSuSE #RPM

NetBSD デバイスドライバの DMAポーリング処理での bus_dma(9) API 呼び出し - tsutsuiの作業記録置き場
https://tsutsui.hatenablog.com/entry/netbsd-dma-driver

いさきさん向けにメモ

#はてなブログ #NetBSD

Open Source Conference Japan in #Nagoya coming up on 23rd of May!

https://event.ospn.jp/osc2026-nagoya/

Mostly Linux, but also a #NetBSD booth set up as well!

#OSPN #OpenSourceConference #Japan #OpenSource

@ironbeagle Looks like #NetBSD there is: https://mastodon.sdf.org/@netbsd/116537862178252362

@MsDropbear42

#Linux users who haven't tried #NetBSD yet will be haunted by these tonight:

And we get a new #Slackware kernel today (5.15.206) to correct the very last CVE from #DirtyFrag - nothing published on the web site yet, but I suspect that's the one.

Also: one more Linux kernel update or zero day and I will seriously consider moving to #OpenBSD or #NetBSD for good...

Continuing adventures in #NetBSD on my Thinkpad...
I managed to get #XFCE up and running using the NetBSD Guide (disabling XDM helped). Tip: `pkgin install xfce4-extras` to get some useful panel widgets. Also, I managed to configure an additional Wi-fi network successfully (the coffee shop I am at right now). I installed Firefox 128. They have newer versions in the repository, but I wanted a slightly old version with less bullshit.

🧵

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #search #searchengine #frogfind #NetBSD #arcticfox #unix

Catch of the Day: "Of course it runs NetBSD!" 🐡🦊

Hey Retro Fans!

Did you have a good weekend? Our bouncer at the FrogFind pond was certainly busy and waved a guest through yesterday that put a massive smile on our faces:

ArcticFox 52.9 on NetBSD!

Among hardcore Unix nerds, there is a famous catchphrase: "Of course it runs NetBSD!" This open-source operating system is legendary for its portability. It has been ported to run on almost anything with a processor—from old toasters and Sega Dreamcasts to massive server racks.

The fact that someone navigated to our pond using NetBSD is already awesome. But the combination with the ArcticFox browser makes it a masterpiece. ArcticFox is a lovingly maintained community fork (based on Pale Moon) specifically kept alive to enable modern browsing on exotic architectures, PowerPC Macs, and old UNIX derivatives.

Cheers to the tinkerers keeping exotic systems online!

Your FrogFind Team 🐸

Alt...

NetBSD

TIL that #NetBSD doesn’t provide Linux emulation on #arm64.

#Fedora #Suse #Linux refugees are welcome to the #NetBSD world :)

https://www.theregister.com/oses/2026/05/10/both-fedora-and-ubuntu-will-get-ai-support-soon/5237409

#NetBSD

https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/05/09/macos-27-threatens-to-bury-time-capsule-foss-brings-a-shovel/5234824

I installed #NetBSD on my #Thinkpad T580. Amazingly, it works. If you select to install XDM (X Display Manager) during installation, then you boot to a graphical login that loads a very primitive X environment with CTWM a window manager for X that gives off distinct 1992 vibes, which happens to be the year it was created. It's an austere #UNIX environment. Perfect, honestly. There are modern desktops in the package repository. My first impressions are A+.

@sashin

Sadly, the non-systemd distros are getting fewer and fiddlier.

The no-ai operating systems are incredibly few. The only one I know of off the top of my head is #NetBSD.

All of the other ones are slop-friendly or slop-neutral.

It's sad that #Fedora doesn't seem to have the will or perhaps even understanding to take a principled stance on this. I can't say I expected a lot better of them, but one can freaking hope.

@thezerobit

#NetBSD has a no-slop policy

@thestrangelet @cmccullough @mason

#NetBSD is the only one with a solid anti-AI policy.

@wordshaper @mhoye I feel vindicated for having stayed with #NetBSD for the last 15+ years.

@E

Port the Enlightenment desktop environment to #NetBSD

https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/programs/2026/projects/mifwPqCq

Today was a OSes update day . First, I updated the laptop of one of my relatives, which I gave him at near 2021. The OS on the laptop (some kind of Dell Inspiron) wasn't updated since these times, so it was a Linux Mint version 18.2 (and now it is ver. 22.3). But, suddenly for me, minor update from 18.2 to 18.3 and the major update from 18.3 to 19 went well, with the help of this instruction: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upgrade.html

From my previous experience with Oracle Linux and it's repositories, I thought, that Linux Mint update will fail, because all repositories shut down and update files were removed, because the installation from 2021 is too old. But, all necessary infrastructure is still up and I managed to perform updates

The second update, the update of my main server with NetBSD. It just works: I installed sysupgrade, update the system, merge some configuration in /etc/, update binary packages, update to packages from pkgsrc and that's all. It just works, without any surprises and problems

#NetBSD #LinuxMint

The #eurobsdcon 2026 Call for Papers is still open!

https://2026.eurobsdcon.org/cfp/

Submit by June 20th, come to Brussels September 9-13 and mingle with #BSD people!

We also offer pre-submission guidance/mentoring, see the CFP text.

Wonder what BSD and the conferences are about? See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html

@EuroBSDCon #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #freesoftware #libresoftware #brussels #bruxelles

@AFresh1 on #NetBSD :

#sysupgrade auto https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-X/latest/amd64

For packages :

#pkgin update
#pkgin full-upgrade

Edit:

For packages only #pkgin upgrade
as pointed by @jperkin Thanks :)

@cienmilojos

I don't know of any OS that has an iron-clad #NoAI policy.

#NetBSD comes the closest, but they even have a provision for AI being included "with permission," IIRC.

#OpenBSD already has slop in base, via tmux. :/

@mike_k All of this is why I am slowly exploring NetBSD - it's looking more and more like my "canned rations" operating system for when I flee to the woods. I don't need a lot of software to be happy, to be honest, and once I have a working roster of apps, I might not even need to keep pace with much of their updates ever again (with obvious exceptions like a browser)

I also feel like it's small enough maybe I can contribute in some way.

#NetBSD

The #eurobsdcon 2026 Call for Papers is still open!

https://2026.eurobsdcon.org/cfp/

Submit by June 20th, come to Brussels September 9-13 and mingle with #BSD people!

We also offer pre-submission guidance/mentoring, see within.

Wonder what BSD and the conferences are about? See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html

@EuroBSDCon #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #freesoftware #libresoftware #brussels #bruxelles

Has anyone tried #NetBSD/aarch64 11 RC3 on the #RaspberryPi Zero 2W?

@drj Not really. I used and consulted on UNIX in the 80's when I worked with Siemens, we called it SINIX. In 2001 after starting teaching, I started with Linux and used vim from early on for sysadm work and gui editors for extensive editing. I converted from Linux to #OpenBSD and #NetBSD two years ago to observe KISS including using only vi for all editing. On those two vi is actually nvi. I never really needed the book more than what's in the first 7 chapters. The clone chapters treats every clone systematically alike. But back in 1998, the clones were not really that different.
This book, UNIX POWER TOOLS, and UNIX in a Nutshell, have been with me for about 25 years or more.

I think #NetBSD #pkgsrc foundation can take this initiative : @netbsd

https://www.sovereign.tech/news/join-sovereign-tech-standards-network

@projectanchorage I would look at multiple options.
- If you're strictly stuck with i386 (not even i486) that means #NetBSD is propably the only choice.
- Depending on your goals, you may want to consider #OpenBSD or #386BSD (today's #FreeBSD).
- Not shure if #OpenSolaris / #illumos supported anything beyond #SPARC(v9 / SPARC64) & #amd64.

The question to me is whether or not old #BSD versions emcan even be built with midern toolchains and if choosing them isn't going to bite one in the ass down the line.
- The reason I choose #Linux for @OS1337 is because it's mature toolchain, drivers and hardware support.
- Tho you may rightfully argue that #OS1337 is just taking the #toybox / #musl + linux "distro" #mkroot and basically tries to make something out of it.

The #eurobsdcon 2026 Call for Papers is open through June 20th!

https://2026.eurobsdcon.org/cfp/

Submit by June 20th, come to Brussels September 9-13 and mingle with #BSD people!

We also offer pre-submission guidance/mentoring, see within.

Wonder what BSD and the conferences are about? See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html

@EuroBSDCon #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #freesoftware #libresoftware #brussels #bruxelles

BSDCan https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/ Talk Saturday 2026-06-20: 11:00 - 11:50 DMS 1130
NetManager - Building products with NetBSD round 2
Stephen Borrill
https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/timetable/timetable-NetManager---Building.html
To register https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/registration.html @bsdcan #netbsd #netmanager

It has been suggested it is time to detail a bit about the configuration of this beast. Let's start with the basics: This is a straight-up #NetBSD 11rc2 installation on a stock #Nintendo #Wii. Many people have detailed how to install it, but one useful source of information is Alex Haydock's blog[2], and of course the NetBSD release documentation. The kernel config[3] is modified slightly from the default WII in an attempt to save a bit of memory.

Building #snac2 was straight forward; no difference from building on i486 or i686. Simply make and make install, with the -f Makefile.NetBSD (the NetBSD-specific makefile is included with the snac sources).

Since snac won't do TLS for inbound connections, a TLS proxy is needed. My go-to nginx isn't in the 11rc2 PPC package repository at the time of writing, so I built it from pkgsrc myself. This only took a couple of hours.. But alas, it's a bit too memory hungry for my taste, even with a minimal configuration.

Next up, I found ttp[4]. It is a very small and simple proxy server, which works fine but cannot serve static files, nor does it support TLS 1.3. It is also incapable of dropping privileges, and since I want to run it as nobody I had to find a different way to pass port 443 traffic to it.

Luckily, NetBSD has npf, a built-in firewall that can do NAT and which is fairly easy to configure (at least with the usual good documentation and examples included). Picking up port 443 and NATing it to a high port for ttp to handle worked fine - and allows me to easily move traffic from one TLS proxy to another while I experiment.

TTP wasn't without problems - but they turned out to not be entirely its fault. I kept getting connection failures and snac kept exiting for no obvious reason.

After some fiddling around, the snac author suggested[5] that I was running out of file handles, which is indeed the case. Adding ulimit -n 1024 to /etc/rc.d/snac solved that issue as well.

Then my thoughts landed on an old acquaintance of mine - pound[6]. This is a reverse proxy with good TLS support, and recent versions can even serve static files in a fairly simple way. After a couple of bug reports, lots of help by the current maintainer, and some more fiddling, I got the most recent versions to build. Once the next release drops (4.21), I'll have a go at doing my first pkgsrc port update :)

The pound configuration[7] now seems to be fairly complete, even keeping out most random scanning attacks (yes, they have already started).

[1] https://wii.cafe/ltning/p/1773014130.033156
[2] https://blog.infected.systems/posts/2025-04-21-this-blog-is-hosted-on-a-nintendo-wii/
[3] https://anduin.net/~ltning/WII_TINY
[4] https://github.com/Theldus/ttp
[5] https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2/issues/576
[6] https://www.gnu.org.ua/software/pound/manual/index.html
[7] https://anduin.net/~ltning/pound/wiicafe_pound.tgz

Alt...

Screenshot of htop running on the Wii. pound and snac processes both hovering between 1 and 2 MB resident memory.

@tfb @jrsharp
#FreeBSD had proceeded some parts of "abstraction" in this several decades.
For example, separation of buses (like ISA, PCI, USB, ...) and devices connected to any of the buses called "newbus" when it was introduced, GEOM for disks, NETGRAPH for networks. But the appoaches would be different with #NetBSD.
Putting newbus (current implementation) aside, others were for "flexibilities" over "abstraction for compatibilities".

My understanding in difference between aproaches of FreeBSD and of NetBSD would be...
FreeBSD: Make it work and stable, fast for running platform in production first. Then, consider making it portable.

NetBSD: Make it elegant and portable by separating machine independent (MI) parts and machine dependent (MD) parts. Then, making it stable would be easier to achieve. So the next would be performance tunings.

Link to document about newbus (already not "new" bus but "current" bus, though):
https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/arch-handbook/newbus/

@TomAoki @tfb understood. And I’m not insensitive to the real deps here. As one who’s been “forced” to consider more minimal libs/deps (by virtue of choosing #OpenBSD on #PowerPC), I have appreciated adjusting my expectations. I expect that as more perfectly good tech / frameworks are deprecated, we’ll see people rethink these things — for the positive. (Like, will the #Linux #486 deprecation bring people to #NetBSD? ;) )

@kingocounty @mirabilos

"usable" of course is a very malleable word, but I know #NetBSD has taken a strong stand against it.

@jmcneill

Also: it seems the #NetBSD Wii is actually on the Fediverse, because yes of course it is... Its owner can be found at @ltning

(I hope I am not starting a DDoS on that poor Wii by posting this...) ☹️

And... When the guy^W dev^W madman^W Absolute Programming God who is responsible for the Wii port of #NetBSD actually likes your post about running a blog on a Wii with NetBSD, you have reached a level of Meta-information I did not think was possible. 😂

Thanks for everything @jmcneill !!

(Now, where the heck did I put my Nintendo Wii...?)

@chesheer Ohhh , thats why I bet on #NetBSD for daily computing — any "newbie with AI" touching CVS — will be shot with heavy low-orbital ion cannon (I hope)

Something I discovered recently:

https://blog.infected.systems/posts/2025-04-21-this-blog-is-hosted-on-a-nintendo-wii/

This is a blog, hosted on a Nintendo Wii running #netbsd ... Pretty cool!

Hat tip to: https://caolan.uk/links/servers/

And: https://sunny.garden/@kaimac/116459990980227925

🎂 Rubenerd: Happy 33rd birthday NetBSD!

https://www.rubenerd.au/happy-33rd-birthday-netbsd/

#netbsd #bsd #opensource

ha, nice. #NetBSD on my M4 Air using UTM.

...

what do i do now?

#BSD #UNIX #Tech #Technology

Alt...

NetBSD terminal, logged into root. I typed "Hiya, NetBSD!" into the prompt.

@mrgtwentythree @slava @eschaton #NetBSD is way underrated @netbsd :)

@jaypatelani Nice! This is mine box there the #NetBSD is running. Basically, this is just a main part of the cashier (without the display). CPU: Intel Atom N2800, 4 Gb of RAM.

Alt...

Photo of the Intel Atom based, fanless machine, working as a server. There are a server, hub (made from an old router), fire extuinguisher and a turka with coffee. Each element has a cyan text with a name of an item.

Alt...

drag0n-server$ uname -a NetBSD drag0n-server.lair.internal 10.1 NetBSD 10.1 (GENERIC) #0: Mon Dec 16 13:08:11 UTC 2024 mkrepro@mkrepro.NetBSD.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC amd64 drag0n-server$ uptime 11:59PM up 5 days, 1:40, 1 user, load averages: 0.08, 0.28, 0.45

lot to love about #netbsd and missing surprisingly little. real annoying things:

find requires a path. "find ." instead of "find", i'm getting it wrong every time.

no "sort -h". how do people sort "du -sh" output? are they content with seeing their file is 173666 blocks big?

anybody knows if patches for these would've been accepted or if they'd be shunned off as gnu-isms?

The BSDCan 2026 schedule has been posted. 30 regular talks, one set of lightning talks, and one Audio BoF: https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/timetable/timetable-all.html

Both FreeBSD and NetBSD will be holding two day Dev Summits across the hall from each other in DMS.
https://wiki.freebsd.org/DevSummit/202606
https://www.netbsd.org/gallery/events.html#bsdcan2026

Just like last year, the reception on Saturday night is free if you register early. This year you must register before May 1, 2026: https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/registration.html
#bsdcan @bsdcan #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #conference #ottawa