Stefano Marinelli
@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

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
Pete Orrall
@peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp 21 hours 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  ·  activity timestamp 18 hours 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
Pete Orrall
@peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp 21 hours 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.