Post · bonfire.cafe

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe · 2 months ago

My friends, I'm so excited and happy to introduce a new project: the illumos Cafe!

The positive and constructive spirit of the BSD Cafe, created and maintained by all the friends who participated from day one in building a strong and friendly community, deserves to spread to other operating systems. Because there are other OSes that deserve attention, certainly more than they're getting right now.

Operating systems based on illumos (like SmartOS, OmniOS, Tribblix, OpenIndiana, etc.) are mature, stable, secure, and perfectly usable for a wide range of tasks. ZFS is native, zones are an excellent method for containerization, and bhyve and kvm coexist beautifully - and so much more, too much to list in a single post.

So from today, the illumos Cafe will stand alongside the BSD Cafe in creating a positive, respectful, and growth-oriented (but also relaxing!) environment, starting right here in the Fediverse with a Mastodon instance and a snac one.

I've written an introductory article about the project, including some technical details. I invite everyone interested to read it: https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/08/18/introducing-the-illumos-cafe/

Choose your table, take a seat and enjoy your time at the illumos Cafe!

#SysAdmin #IT #BSDCafe #illumosCafe #Community #OpenSource #OSS #illumos #SmartOS #OpenIndiana #ZFS #bhyve #kvm #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #ITNotes

napierge

@napierge@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · last month

@stefano hi they are writing about your project in the one of the biggest magazine about computer in czech, good job 👍👍❤️

https://www.root.cz/clanky/ghostbsd-prichazi-s-gershwinem-kde-predstavuje-pruvodce-nastavenim/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=rss

Stefano Marinelli

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · last month

@napierge wow, nice! Thank you for the link!

stratacast

@stratacast@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@stefano Oh how I also wish that demitasse existed in real life. I would buy one

Stefano Marinelli

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@stratacast it is not impossible. I think I could make some, like the BSD Cafe stickers

stratacast

@stratacast@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@stefano I know there's services and tools out there that would. You could surely make some and probably get them around Europe pretty easily. Probably difficult to ship that to America, even if you had the capacity :D

Stefano Marinelli

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@stratacast I found some but they're extremely expensive - like 40 euros for a single cup. So I'll keep investigating

stratacast

@stratacast@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@stefano Ouch, that's pricey. Could be they'd get cheaper in bulk orders, but then you probably want to have some sort of crowd fund before pulling the trigger on that

Stefano Marinelli

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@stratacast yes, exactly. I'll go on with my research, meanwhile

Zeki Çatav 🤔 ☕ 🕯️🎶

@catavz@mastodon.social replied · 2 months ago

@stefano I guess it's time to try OpenIndiana Hipster, which I downloaded earlier.

Stefano Marinelli

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@catavz Great idea!

Pete Orrall

@peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@stefano Awesome news! Admittedly I don't know much about the Illumos family of OSes other than being a modern derivative of (Open)Solaris and SVR4 Unix.

I don't even know where these OSes are being used. But, if there is an instance being created for it, then that's great. There's a growing community.

Would love to learn more.

stratacast

@stratacast@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@peteorrall @stefano I'm nobody in particular, but I've been using SmartOS for the last year and have been in love with it. Also have OmniOS running in a couple places too. They are no fuss and are pleasant to use and do their jobs very well. My one regret with SmartOS is I might be a better candidate for their superset project: Triton Datacenter. But I am still pleased at this point with my choice

Stefano Marinelli

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@peteorrall Those are great OSes. Their enterprise-level stability and reliability is still relevant today and they absolutely need to be promoted.

Pete Orrall

@peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@stefano When promoting technologies, one of the most common questions (tests of acceptance, really) is "Who uses it?"

I see this frequently with the preference of RHEL over Debian. It's even more difficult with Free and Open BSDs. Unless mainstream corporations are actively promoting it in white papers, people are quick to dismiss it.

Stefano Marinelli

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied · 2 months ago

@peteorrall that's the point: That's the point: should mainstream corporations be the ones who decide what is the best OS for my tasks? We should explain to people that the best solutions are not always the ones that everybody else uses.

Colonel Kramer 🇮🇱

@ColonelKramer@digitalcourage.social replied · 2 months ago

@stefano

Damn! What should I do now? Over the last few days, I decided to move from my instance here (digitalcourage.social) to bsd.cafe. But I also love Solaris-based operating systems. Perhaps even more than all the xBSDs. Where should I go now?