Why I love FreeBSD

A personal reflection on my first encounter with FreeBSD in 2002, how it shaped the way I design and run systems, and why its philosophy, stability, and community still matter to me more than twenty years later.

it-notes.dragas.net/2026/03/16/why-i-love-fr... […]

Dear friends of the #BSDCafe and the entire community,

Unfortunately, sometimes things in life do not go as planned. Becoming an adult also means learning to accept this and to set priorities. Over the past few months I have had some family matters that required my attention. I waited as long […]

FreeBSD 14.4 正式版发布公告 FreeBSD 14.4-Release Announcement (www.freebsd.org) 18:45  ↑ 103 HN Points

FreeBSD 14.4-RELEASE Announcement

The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 14.4-RELEASE. This is the fifth release of the stable/14 branch.

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.4R/announce/

#FreeBSD #RunBSD

I've just requested an account to the #FreeBSD Bugzilla, hopefully, in a short period of time, I will be able to submit the ports I prepared for #SpeedataPublisher… 🤞

#runbsd

Dear friends of #BSDCafe - the BSD Cafe Journal needs some attention.

This isn't the best time for me to revive it myself, and that's exactly why I'm counting on you!

I'm sure you have great ideas, thoughts, projects, and articles that would fit perfectly in that space.

So don’t be shy 🙂
The […]

Current task - cloning a prod server to a dev one:

zfs send -vRc zroot/bastille@toSend00 | mbuffer -m 2G | ssh root@VPNIP "zfs receive zroot/bastille"

Done.

#FreeBSD #RunBSD #ZFS #BastilleBSD #Bastille

I may need to wipe my #macOS and install #FreeBSD and some desktop environment…

#FreeBSD #BSD #RunBSD

Typing this on my fresh install of #FreeBSD and #Mate...

I am back on #FreeBSD #RunBSD

My old friend, a Raspberry Pi A+, has been running my home heating system for months, just like it did back in 2014.

It has not missed a single moment.
It has sailed through every so called cloud outage.
It kept working flawlessly even when the Internet connection was down, because it simply […]

Running Web Browsers in FreeBSD Jail Using OpenBSD as a daily driver, I got used to having programs being restricted in their permissions. Especially Web Browsers from ports that are patched to implement pledge(2) and unveil(8). Long story short, this guarantees that Firefox, Chromium & friends will get killed if they try to access system resources that they were not allowed to access; be it a device or a file system space. FreeBSD 14.1, AFAIK, does not implement such feature. And getting a bit paranoid because of “Fish Linux” , I decided my FreeBSD Web browsers should be living in jail.

Sometimes I need to find something.
Sometimes I fire up a search engine and search.

8 times out of 10 I finish on @joel 's blog.

www.tumfatig.net/2024/running-web-browser...

#FreeBSD #Jails #RunBSD

A VNC view of the top on the server - now running inside a VM

The server doesn't boot natively.
It can boot in Linux rescue mode. So:
qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 65536 -smp 16 \
-bios /usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd \
-drive file=/dev/nvme0n1,format=raw,if=virtio \
-drive file=/dev/nvme1n1,format=raw,if=virtio \
-netdev […]

[Original post on mastodon.bsd.cafe]

4 brand new Lenovo Desktop PCs collected
10 days to solve this problem

It will be on FreeBSD

#FreeBSD #RunBSD

Let's go...

freebsd-update upgrade -r 15.0-RELEASE

#FreeBSD #RunBSD

I was looking for an alternative to Windows that I could use every so often. Not a daily driver; I find it great for my Unix systems itch. Outside of gaming, it has been a great OS to use for most of my main work, archive & network infrastructure needs #FreeBSD #RunBSD

I just wrapped up an interesting call that was originally scheduled for last week but rescheduled for today. The client is looking for a unique setup, and thanks to having an early re-read of the fantastic The Book of PF - 4th Edition, I was able to propose some configurations that had […]

The day is off to a good start.
This morning's sunshine felt like a good sign. Plus, I have a call coming up later that promises to be interesting, to say the least - I'll share some details shortly.

Stay tuned!

#StayTuned #RunBSD

Make Your Own CDN with NetBSD

NetBSD is a lightweight, stable, and secure operating system that supports a wide range of hardware, making it an excellent choice for a caching reverse proxy.

it-notes.dragas.net/2024/09/03/make-your-own...

#NetBSD #RunBSD #ITNotes #CDN #Caching […]

✨ Sécuriser les systèmes embarqués avec un système de fichiers en lecture seule
La configuration d'un système #Netbsd en lecture seule atténue un point de vulnérabilité critique souvent négligé : la corruption du système de fichiers sur des supports de stockage peu fiables.

🔗 […]

✨ Make your own Read-Only Device with #Netbsd
A practical guide to hardening embedded systems by eliminating file system write vulnerabilities through a memory-backed root configuration.

🔗 https://p4u.xyz/ID__FKNQB6R/1 (🇩🇪🇺🇸🇫🇷)

#Vulnerability #Runbsd #Ownyourdata #Itnotes #Embeddeddevices #Bot

✨ Read-Only Root für eingebettete Systeme mit #Netbsd
Die Absicherung des Dateisystems als kritische Maßnahme gegen Datenkorruption und Ausfälle

🔗 https://p4u.xyz/ID__FKNQB6R/1 (🇩🇪🇺🇸🇫🇷)

#Vulnerability #Runbsd #Ownyourdata #Itnotes #Embeddeddevices #Bot

Make your own Read-Only Device with NetBSD

One detail that is often overlooked when dealing with embedded (or remote) devices is a key point of vulnerability: the file system.

it-notes.dragas.net/2024/09/10/make-your-own...

#NetBSD #RunBSD #EmbeddedDevices […]

As the @bsdcan list of talks and tutorials have been posted, I can officially announce my presentation:

Don't Freeze in the Cloud: Reclaiming Home Control with NetBSD

In 2010, I was taking more flights than cups of coffee. After a two-week trip, I returned home to a nasty, albeit expected […]

The @bsdcan 2026 list of talks and tutorials has been posted:
blog.bsdcan.org/blog/
#bsdcan #runbsd

Next NYC*BUG: March 4th
Weird Code Injection Techniques on FreeBSD With libhijack.pdf remote presentation, by Shawn Webb
2026-03-04 @ 18:45 local (23:45 UTC) - Backroom of Brass Monkey 55 Little West 12th St

www.nycbug.org
#runbsd

Table at Brass Monkey covered with *BSD related coasters and stickers for NYC*BUG members coming to the social this evening.

NYC*BUG Social this evening. Hope everyone is having a good start to 2026. As crazy as things are out there.

#runbsd

This morning, four calls. My throat feels like it’s been scrubbed with sandpaper, but three new projects ranging from cloud systems to BSDs. Definitely worth it.

#RunBSD

I’ve just received a wonderful email. I’m so excited!

More about this in the coming days.

#RunBSD #NetBSD

Next NYC*BUG: February Social:
2026-02-04 @ 18:45 local (23:45 UTC) - Backroom of Brass Monkey 55 Little West 12th St
We are having a social meeting to catch up after the holidays. Will bring a few ideas for future meetings, stickers.

More info:
www.nycbug.org
#runbsd

This will be retired tomorrow morning - they finally decided to upgrade it.

Not a single hiccup.

-> 1 1223 days, 07:15:39 | FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p2 Wed Sep 21 14:07:32 2022

#FreeBSD #RunBSD

updated mastodon to v4.5.5
and
Yes, IPv6 (only) mail servers are possible in 2026. dkim, spf, dmarc, etc: are OK.
Thank you for flyin' sysop's Airlines.
#runbsd