Once again today, #FreeBSD and #ZFS saved a setup. Suddenly, a colleague realized that a database was acting up - probably some massive operation had deleted something. The machine takes snapshots every 15 minutes and keeps them for a few hours, then one a day and keeps those for days. To make a long story short, the July 4th dump still had the correct data. To get there, we just had to clone all the snapshots (going back day by day) and test them.

Snapshots are one of the best inventions since sliced bread.

#RunBSD#OpenZFS

Wow just wow ! I've never bothered to listen to any of the #OpenBSD songs but I am just now and so far Source Fish is my favourite. Thought I'd listen to some tunes whilst stalking folks blogs like @h3artbl33d@exquisite.social and @pitrh@mastodon.social as you do. #RunBSD

https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/songs/song57.mp3

Happy Bastille Day!

In keeping with tradition, we have a new release ready for you. Check out the Bastille 1.0.1.20250714 release notes at:

https://github.com/BastilleBSD/bastille/releases

#FreeBSD#runBSD#BastilleBSD#BastilleDay

We know you're curious, so here are some of the highlights we've included in the BastilleBSD distro:

1) Bastille and Rocinante come pre-installed!
2) pkg-base by default and all repositories set to latest.
3) vim-tiny, git-tiny, htop, cpu-microcode, openntpd, smartd, zsh/fish/bash and doas pre-installed.
4) bastille setup run automatically on firstboot, configuring networking, firewall and storage.
5) Host version auto-bootstrapped and updated.

#FreeBSD#BastilleBSD#runBSD

Dear friends of the BSD Cafe,

This idea has been in my mind since the very beginning of this adventure, almost two years ago. Over time, several people have suggested it. But until recently, I felt the timing just wasn’t right - for many reasons. Today, I believe it finally is.

So I’m happy to announce a new service:
The BSD Cafe Journal - https://journal.bsd.cafe

At first, I thought I’d use BSSG for it (I even added multi-author support with this in mind), but in the end, it didn’t feel like the right tool for the job.

The idea is to create a multi-author space, with content published on a fairly regular basis. A reference point for news, updates, tutorials, technical articles - a place to inform and connect.
Just like people in Italy used to stop by cafes to read the newspaper and chat about the day’s news, the BSD Cafe Journal aims to be a space for reading, sharing, and staying informed - all in the spirit of the BSD Cafe.

What it’s not:
It’s not here to replace personal blogs, or excellent newsletters like @vermaden ’s. And it’s not an aggregator.

What it is:
A place where authors can write original content, share links to posts on their own blogs or elsewhere, publish guides, offer insights, or dive into technical explanations.

The guiding principles are the same as always: positivity, constructive discussion, promoting BSDs and open source in general. No hype (sharing a cool new service is fine, posting non-stop about the latest trend is not), no drama, no politics. The goal is to bring people together, not divide them. To inform, not inflame.
Respect, tolerance, and inclusivity are key. Everyone should feel welcome reading the BSD Cafe Journal - never judged, offended, or excluded.

The platform I’ve chosen is WordPress, for several reasons: it’s portable (runs well on all BSDs), has great built-in role management (contributors, authors, etc.), and - last but not least - supports ActivityPub.
This means every author will have their own identity in the Fediverse (like: @stefano ) and can be followed directly, and it’ll also be possible to follow the whole Journal.

Original and educational content is encouraged, but it’s also perfectly fine to link to existing articles elsewhere. Personally, I’ll link my technical posts from ITNotes whenever I publish them there.

The goal is simple: a news-oriented site, rich in content, ad-free, respectful of privacy - all under the BSD Cafe umbrella.

Content coordination will happen in a dedicated Matrix room for authors. There’ll also be a public room for discussing ideas, giving feedback, and sharing suggestions.

Of course, I can’t do this alone. A journal with no content is just an empty shell.
So here’s my call for action:
Who’s ready to lend a hand? If you enjoy writing, explaining, sharing your knowledge - the Journal is waiting for you.

#BSDCafe#BSDCafeServices#BSDCafeUpdates#BSDCafeAnnouncements#RunBSD#FreeBSD#NetBSD#OpenBSD #illumos#Linux#OSS#OpenSource#BCJournal#BSDCafeJournal

Dear friends of the BSD Cafe,

This idea has been in my mind since the very beginning of this adventure, almost two years ago. Over time, several people have suggested it. But until recently, I felt the timing just wasn’t right - for many reasons. Today, I believe it finally is.

So I’m happy to announce a new service:
The BSD Cafe Journal - https://journal.bsd.cafe

At first, I thought I’d use BSSG for it (I even added multi-author support with this in mind), but in the end, it didn’t feel like the right tool for the job.

The idea is to create a multi-author space, with content published on a fairly regular basis. A reference point for news, updates, tutorials, technical articles - a place to inform and connect.
Just like people in Italy used to stop by cafes to read the newspaper and chat about the day’s news, the BSD Cafe Journal aims to be a space for reading, sharing, and staying informed - all in the spirit of the BSD Cafe.

What it’s not:
It’s not here to replace personal blogs, or excellent newsletters like @vermaden 's. And it’s not an aggregator.

What it is:
A place where authors can write original content, share links to posts on their own blogs or elsewhere, publish guides, offer insights, or dive into technical explanations.

The guiding principles are the same as always: positivity, constructive discussion, promoting BSDs and open source in general. No hype (sharing a cool new service is fine, posting non-stop about the latest trend is not), no drama, no politics. The goal is to bring people together, not divide them. To inform, not inflame.
Respect, tolerance, and inclusivity are key. Everyone should feel welcome reading the BSD Cafe Journal - never judged, offended, or excluded.

The platform I’ve chosen is WordPress, for several reasons: it’s portable (runs well on all BSDs), has great built-in role management (contributors, authors, etc.), and - last but not least - supports ActivityPub.
This means every author will have their own identity in the Fediverse (like: @stefano@journal.bsd.cafe ) and can be followed directly, and it’ll also be possible to follow the whole Journal.

Original and educational content is encouraged, but it’s also perfectly fine to link to existing articles elsewhere. Personally, I’ll link my technical posts from ITNotes whenever I publish them there.

The goal is simple: a news-oriented site, rich in content, ad-free, respectful of privacy - all under the BSD Cafe umbrella.

Content coordination will happen in a dedicated Matrix room for authors. There’ll also be a public room for discussing ideas, giving feedback, and sharing suggestions.

Of course, I can’t do this alone. A journal with no content is just an empty shell.
So here’s my call for action:
Who’s ready to lend a hand? If you enjoy writing, explaining, sharing your knowledge - the Journal is waiting for you.

#BSDCafe #BSDCafeServices #BSDCafeUpdates #BSDCafeAnnouncements #RunBSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #illumos #Linux #OSS #OpenSource #BCJournal #BSDCafeJournal

Dear friends of the BSD Cafe,

This idea has been in my mind since the very beginning of this adventure, almost two years ago. Over time, several people have suggested it. But until recently, I felt the timing just wasn’t right - for many reasons. Today, I believe it finally is.

So I’m happy to announce a new service:
The BSD Cafe Journal - https://journal.bsd.cafe

At first, I thought I’d use BSSG for it (I even added multi-author support with this in mind), but in the end, it didn’t feel like the right tool for the job.

The idea is to create a multi-author space, with content published on a fairly regular basis. A reference point for news, updates, tutorials, technical articles - a place to inform and connect.
Just like people in Italy used to stop by cafes to read the newspaper and chat about the day’s news, the BSD Cafe Journal aims to be a space for reading, sharing, and staying informed - all in the spirit of the BSD Cafe.

What it’s not:
It’s not here to replace personal blogs, or excellent newsletters like @vermaden ’s. And it’s not an aggregator.

What it is:
A place where authors can write original content, share links to posts on their own blogs or elsewhere, publish guides, offer insights, or dive into technical explanations.

The guiding principles are the same as always: positivity, constructive discussion, promoting BSDs and open source in general. No hype (sharing a cool new service is fine, posting non-stop about the latest trend is not), no drama, no politics. The goal is to bring people together, not divide them. To inform, not inflame.
Respect, tolerance, and inclusivity are key. Everyone should feel welcome reading the BSD Cafe Journal - never judged, offended, or excluded.

The platform I’ve chosen is WordPress, for several reasons: it’s portable (runs well on all BSDs), has great built-in role management (contributors, authors, etc.), and - last but not least - supports ActivityPub.
This means every author will have their own identity in the Fediverse (like: @stefano@journal.bsd.cafe ) and can be followed directly, and it’ll also be possible to follow the whole Journal.

Original and educational content is encouraged, but it’s also perfectly fine to link to existing articles elsewhere. Personally, I’ll link my technical posts from ITNotes whenever I publish them there.

The goal is simple: a news-oriented site, rich in content, ad-free, respectful of privacy - all under the BSD Cafe umbrella.

Content coordination will happen in a dedicated Matrix room for authors. There’ll also be a public room for discussing ideas, giving feedback, and sharing suggestions.

Of course, I can’t do this alone. A journal with no content is just an empty shell.
So here’s my call for action:
Who’s ready to lend a hand? If you enjoy writing, explaining, sharing your knowledge - the Journal is waiting for you.

#BSDCafe #BSDCafeServices #BSDCafeUpdates #BSDCafeAnnouncements #RunBSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #illumos #Linux #OSS #OpenSource #BCJournal #BSDCafeJournal

Did you know Bastille has now been around for more than seven years?!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Join us today in celebrating our newest release, version 1.0.1.20250714

#FreeBSD#BastilleBSD#runBSD#BastilleDay

So if you ever wondered how OpenBSD 7.7 (most recent one at the time of writing) works on 23-year old PC, I have recorded a boot process.
CPU: AMD Athlon 😜 2000+ (single-core 1.6 Ghz) from 2002. i386, of course
RAM: 512 Mb DDR2
HDD: Some Western Digital 80Gb hard drive from ~2004
Fresh OpenBSD installation without any tweaks and tuning boots in 88 seconds.
There's definitely a room for improvement such as turning off libraries reordering (we should't worry about security too much on such machine). Less then a minute is easily possible.
But still, results are amazing, I think. It's a 23-year old PC! And it runs the most recent OS without any trouble. Try to do that with Windows 11 or any mainstream Linux distro.
Also, #FVWM is pretty snappy and works just fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrCtwh8yqU8

#OpenBSD#RunBSD#RetroComputing#RetroComputers#FVWM

I #RunBSD and this is one of my favorite commands lately:

find somedirfullofmusic/ -type f | amused load ; amused play

(Amused aliased to a for speed)

Amused is just smart enough to not try to play cover art and readme.txt. :)

Yesterday, I experienced two disappointments, and in such cases, a bit of my enthusiasm tends to wane. It's been a long and winding week.
The fortunate thing, though, is that these very disappointments cause me to "withdraw" a bit into my own world. And this often means some cool "nerd" experiments. Plus, in the afternoon, some relaxation. And my wife is happy because she sees me doing my "nerd" things with a smile, and afterward, I have that sense of well-being to dedicate to doing some nice activities with her.

Currently, I have two PCEngines APUs (retired from client workloads but still in full form and energy). One with OpenBSD, the other with NetBSD, added to the FreeBSD one that's already been running since yesterday evening.

#RunBSD#FreeBSD#NetBSD#OpenBSD