# New article is out #

Solus, a sparkling star in the Linux sky

https://darkblueraven.com/sites/articles/solus-review-january-2026.php

#darkblueraven #solus #xfce #budgiedesktop #gnome #kdeplasma #linux #linuxdesktop #opensource #freesoftware

Gave an update on #Gershwin Desktop development for #FreeBSD, #GhostBSD, and #Linux in yesterday's #GNUstep meeting. Working super hard to make the desktop welcoming and familiar to switchers from proprietary OSes - but not just superficially. Design, after all, is how it works, not just how it looks. @greg_casamento put up the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDwLzy8map8&t=1000s

How do y’all organize your #Linux or #BSD workflow?

Are you a desktop environment user that treats it as a turnkey environment for all your needs and don’t tweak it much?

Do you just use the tty and terminal programs early leveraging the power of the unix-y shell?

Or do you play in the middle ground somewhere and use a tiling wm like me?

—

For me, I treat my #OpenBSD install like a unix-y flavored lisp machine. I don’t need much gui integration that much outside of the terminal, my wm’s lisp process socket and emacs, to be happy.

Export / Import flatpak programs from a computer to another

https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2023-01-01-flatpak-export-import.html

gemini://perso.pw/blog/articles/flatpak-export-import.gmi
#linux #flatpak #bandwidth

@solene

You don't even need a Linux computer to take part in my course "Basic Linux System Administration" that'll start next week. You can use Pubmox, our community lab infrastructure, to spin up as many Linux boxes as you need. It's only one of the many perks of being a TSR member.

And with the discount code "NY2026", you can save 50% **for the lifetime of your membership**. This sale ends tomorrow, so don't miss out!

https://monospacementor.com/courses/linsys-1/

#Linux #SysAdmin #SystemAdministration

Evergreen

#OpenBSD #RunBSD #Linux #Jokes

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The "Fish Linux" meme

manpageblog is written in Python and available for many systems, including #FreeBSD, #OpenBSD, #NetBSD or #Solaris based ones like #Illumos but also on #Linux like #Debian or #Ubuntu.

Changelog v1.6:

• Pagination support added
• Sitemap support added
• SEO optimized
• LD+JSON support added

The project source is available on GitHub at:
https://github.com/gyptazy/manpageblog
You can find a real-life demo on my website at https://gyptazy.com

#opensource #devops #minimalism #purism #web #blog #blogengine #blogging #coding #python #website #manpageblog

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manpageblog - a UNIX man page themed static blog engine

Linux tip: `iostat -x 1` monitors disk I/O performance every second. Watch the `%util` column - consistently high values indicate I/O bottlenecks. Press Ctrl+C to stop monitoring. #Linux #Performance #SystemAdministration #SysAdmin

Use `journalctl -f -u servicename` for real-time service logs. The `-u` targets specific service units, `-f` follows live output. Add `-p err` for errors only.

🔗 Learn more in my course: https://monospacementor.com/courses/linsys-1/

#Linux #SystemAdministration

Linux tip: `ss -s` provides socket statistics summary. Shows TCP/UDP connection counts and states. Much faster than parsing full socket lists when you just need connection metrics. #Linux #SystemAdministration #SysAdmin

I can say, however, that I've reunited with an "old friend" who is still in great shape. Before I get dozens of replies about it being insecure: in theory, it is, but it's not accessible from the outside. It's isolated within its own network and is only able to connect and fetch backups for 'extreme disaster recovery' (only at specific times, restricted by specific firewall rules). It served its purpose today, and tomorrow, it might be even more useful.

18:33:01 up 3188 days, 4:47, 1 user, load average: 5.09, 4.73, 4.74

Debian, Btrfs, and zero internal dust.
It's kept in a sterile, extremely protected room.

#IT #SysAdmin #Debian #Linux #Uptime #ServerUptime

The Bad People are repeatedly, successfully uploading crypto malware to the #Linux #snapcraft Snap Store today! Way more than usual. Most masquerade as basic apps, then upload their malware as an update.

https://snapscope.popey.com/

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟭/𝟬𝟱 (Valuable News - 2026/01/05) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/01/05/valuable-news-2026-01-05/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

New year, new possibilities. This year will bring many good things and it will (for sure) be the "Year of the Linux and BSD desktop", and hopefully also a "AI was yesterday, now it's time for NI (natural idio... I mean intelligence)" year.

So, happy new year everyone!

#linux #bsd #linuxdesktop #bsddesktop

Linux tip: `dmesg -T` shows kernel messages with human-readable timestamps. Add ` | grep -i error` to find hardware issues. The kernel ring buffer often contains clues about system instability. #Linux

Seems KDE's new login/session manager which is supposed to replace sddm dropped FreeBSD support and will be systemd only.

I could rant about this being a typical techbro linux move (and about fedora, as far I can see in this case) or ask on the kde discuss what's the real deal, but I am tired of this, so tired...
It is sending exactly the wrong message to other OS ports and it's why I left the GNU/Linux world. Move fast, break things...

*sigh* Ok, I should start worrying about plasma6's general direction now and slowly looking for another DE here on FreeBSD. It's not worth the struggle.

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-login-manager/-/commit/e78f33aefd6512b542af21c3542516f38cbf678d

#kde #sddm #plasma6 #freebsd #openbsd #linux

New blog post: Can I finally start using Wayland in 2026?

Wayland is the successor to the X server (X11, Xorg) to implement the graphics stack on Linux. […] I don’t want to be stuck on deprecated software, so I try to start using Wayland each year, and this articles outlines what keeps me from migrating to Wayland in 2026.

https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2026-01-04-wayland-sway-in-2026/

#wayland #sway #i3wm #linux

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screenshot of my blog post: Can I finally start using Wayland in 2026?

Linux tip: `journalctl -f -u servicename` follows logs for a specific systemd service in real-time. Much cleaner than tailing multiple log files. Add `--since "10 minutes ago"` to see recent entries first. #Linux #SystemD

#FOSS #UNIX #BSD #LINUX

Linux tip: `ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head -20` shows top CPU-consuming processes. Replace `-%cpu` with `-%mem` for memory usage. The `--sort` flag works with any column name from `ps` output. #Linux #Performance

Use `sudo !!` to repeat your last command with root privileges. Try `cd $(dirname !!)` to change to the directory of the last command's target. Saves retyping long commands.

🔗 Learn more in my course: https://monospacementor.com/courses/linsys-1/

#Linux

Plus One

Thank you, all the supporters, fans, visitors, critters, observers and machine-folk.

Good luck next year!

#unix_surrealism #technomage #openbsd #dragonflybsd #linux #penguin #9front #comic #grendel #glenda

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Girl, Fish and Penguin pose for a photograph.

TrueNAS CORE finally disappeared from the software status page for TrueNAS.

For posterity, November and December 2025:

<https://web.archive.org/web/20251114033428/https://www.truenas.com/software-status/>

<https://web.archive.org/web/20251127043850/https://www.truenas.com/docs/softwarestatus/>

<https://web.archive.org/web/20251218152018/https://www.truenas.com/docs/softwarestatus/>

<https://www.truenas.com/docs/softwarestatus/>

#iXsystems #TrueNAS #FreeBSD #Linux

＂… Nearly two dozen different Windows-like UIs represents a titanic waste of programmer effort, skill, and time. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people, working hard for decades… but all on different projects, meaning that none of them achieve greatness. …＂

https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/10/deduplicating_the_desktops/ @lproven

(I thought I boosted this seven weeks ago. Mind playing tricks on me. It's one of a few things on my ridiculously long reading list that I actually do keep revisiting. I don't know what to think. I'm reading it in overlapping chunks.)

#desktop #Lumina #Windows #KDE #Plasma #Trinity #GNOME #MATE #Xfce #LXDE #Cinnamon #Budgie #LXQt #Deepin #Enlightenment #Equinox #IceWM #JWM #GNU #FOSS #Linux

Do you pray?

#unix_surrealism #magnetic_nymph #technomage #comic #runbsd #linux

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Girl acquires a vintage machine from a malevolent spirit. Magnetic Nymph: "You know, normally we use these to trap souls. You hackers truly are weird."

dirty dozen

#japanese_jesus #unix_surrealism #linux #gentoo #openbsd #fish #mnt #thinkpad #ibm #darts #pool

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the twelve apostles and japanese jesus in a milkbar

Use `tmux` for persistent terminal sessions on servers. Your work survives SSH disconnections. `tmux new -s work` creates a named session, `tmux a -t work` reattaches to it. #Linux #tmux

Linux tip: `rsync -avz --progress source/ user@host:/destination/` syncs files via SSH with progress display. The `-a` preserves permissions, `-v` is verbose, `-z` compresses during transfer. #Linux #SystemAdministration #SysAdmin

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱/𝟭𝟮/𝟮𝟵 (Valuable News - 2025/12/29) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/valuable-news-2025-12-29/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

D'ailleurs, c'est toujours les autres OS qui meurent...

#9front #linux #openbsd #unix_surrealism #technomage

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Cirno, Glenda, Girl, Puffy and Penguin come across a brand new MATA poster in a ruined city. "MATA LINUX (WITH AI!) COMING SOON!" Cirno: "Anyway... It's always other operating systems that die."

Great update

Bash Static Site Generator

Stefano coded an important update

#Programming #OpenSource #HTML #site #generator #BSD #freeBSD #Linux #ghostBSD

https://blog.bssg.dragas.net/2025/12/28/announcing-bssd-0-33-0-full-content-homepage/

New 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘀 [Scripts Stats] article on vermaden.wordpress.com blog.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/12/28/scripts-stats/

#verblog #freebsd #linux #scripts #shell #stats #unix

Fish Alpinism

How I make digital art.

https://triapul.cz/_/1765291397

#unix_surrealism #openbsd #alpine #linux #gimp #art #foss

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artist keyboard

Salvatore Sanfilippo (creator of Redis, and more) published a beautiful video inspired by my latest blog post. I was really pleased! It's in Italian, but auto-generated English audio track is available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNqbKEx2mBM

#ITNotes #Linux #OpenSource #OSS #OpenSource

DUFF v KORN 2

prev: https://merveilles.town/@prahou/115508225024561937

#unix_surrealism #plan9 #9front #korn #ksh #rc #comic #linux #lo0 #technomage #openblade #openbsd

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Daemon: "I think that looks pretty good! Don't you?" Kshboy: "Haha, yeah! You made it in troff?" Daemon: "Yeah!" Kshboy: "Cool!" DEAR MISTER DUFF, MY BEST FRIEND AND I WERE WONDERING, IF YOU COULD BEAT KORN IN A FIGHT. WE KNOW OF A GREAT PLACE WHERE YOU COULD DO BATTLE. Daemon: "We can just swap the names with sed for the other letter!" Kshboy: "But how do we get it to them? We don't even know where they live..." Daemon: "I have an idea. Let's rewrite it!"

Alt...

Random penguins hand a leaflet to Techno-Mage. DUFF V KORN DUEL OF THE AGES WHEN: NEXT FULL MOON WHERE: THE BIG HILL OUTSIDE FOSSTOWN WHOEVER DOESN'T SHOW AUTOMATICALLY LOSES! PLACE YOUR BEST AT THE DRUNKEN BIRD BARD OpenBlade: "Oh yeah, I heard about this." Mage: "You heard about this?" OpenBlade: "You have a lot of money riding on Korn btw."

Alt...

Lo0: "YOU AND I WERE MEANT TO BE!" Lo0 KORN TRIBUTE practice Korn: "STOP! That's not what they sounded like..." Mec: "Sorry, Mister K." Korn: "Are you? The gig is in a week. Do better!" Bot_Manager: "YO! CASH MONEY K! Why didn't you tell me about the fight?!" Korn: "What fight?" Bot_Manager: "I could get the band to play there!"

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Penguin Postman walks up a mountain. Penguin: "Mister Duff? Mail!" Duff: "Vincent! Is it next year already?" Penguin: "No sir, just some admin stuff regarding your fight." Duff: "Fight?"

Static Web Hosting on the Intel N150: FreeBSD, SmartOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux Compared

Update: This post has been updated to include Docker benchmarks and a comparison of container overhead versus FreeBSD Jails and illumos Zones.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/11/19/static-web-hosting-intel-n150-freebsd-smartos-netbsd-openbsd-linux/

#ITNotes #freebsd #illumos #jail #linux #netbsd #openbsd #ownyourdata #server #smartos #sysadmin #zoneshosting

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/11/19/static-web-hosting-intel-n150-freebsd-smartos-netbsd-openbsd-linux/

#ITNotes #NoteHUB #freebsd #illumos #jail #linux #netbsd #openbsd #ownyourdata #server #smartos #sysadmin #zoneshosting

the list

#unix_surrealism #comic #poster #openbsd #freebsd #netbsd #dragonflybsd #9front #plan9 #glenda #cirno #girl #daemon #puffy #rabbit #mata #openblade #penguin #linux #foss

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MATACORP'S MOST WANTED HACKERS Fish Daemon Cirno OpenBlade Rabbit Frederick "the Hammer" Glenda II Sphence Purple "Penguin" Pentium-M Man Girl

This Isn't a Battle

After reading a post describing the FreeBSD community as 'toxic', I share a different perspective. This isn't a battle. It's a reflection on coexistence, the original Open Source spirit, and the quiet richness of taking a different path.

https://my-notes.dragas.net/2025/11/14/this-isnt-a-battle/

#MyNotes #IT #SysAdmin #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #Linux #OpenSource

bathing

I use @OpenBSDAms btw

#unix_surrealism #openbsd #vmm #vmd #poster #comic #linux #plan9 #glenda

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Girl and Penguin visit the fish vats.

dating culture clash

#9front #openbsd #gnu #linux #plan9 #dating #comic #unix

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plan9bunny-person meets with a fish-daemon-person. Daemon: "So, how was the date?" Bunny: "He talked about docker for 35 minutes and then asked, if I have wine." Daemon: "Did you tell him you're not Unix?" Bunny: "Yeah, he said: 'oh, like GNU?'"

Plus:
• Fedora KDE pkg mgmt
• Debian vs systemd
• raconn — a smart tool for parallel SSH connections to multiple hostnames/IPs in one ProxyCommand. (https://blog.izissise.net/posts/raconn/)
• UBIOS (China’s UEFI-alt)

Read it 👉 https://newsletter.nixers.net/entries.php#311

“There are no life hacks, only trade-offs.” — James Clear

#Unix #Linux #FreeBSD #FOSS #SysAdmin #ReproducibleBuilds #SSH #Nixers

The Man of MATA pt1

next: https://merveilles.town/@prahou/115271822786360293

pls consider supporting my work: https://analognowhere.com/support

#unix_surrealism #comic #technomage #openbsd #linux #penguin #mata

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Somewhere in a desert... Girl and Penguin are eating breakfast. Penguin: "Morning, slept well?" Girl: "mhmhmhm" Penguin: "What's today?" Girl checks her school schedule. It's Monday, morning class - history. Girl: "History. Penguin, unenthusiased: "Sounds exciting."

Alt...

Classroom. Fish begins the lesson. Fish: "I wanted to call this class mythology, but Purple said history suggests that some of it might actually be true. Nobody remembers how long ago, but as you know, the world ended. While the inheritors of the ravaged land learned to adapt to their predicament, three brothers, successors of those who brought about the end, set out into the destroyed world to ruin it some more." LAST REMAINING MATACORPBUNKER B_73; three brothers "Well, gentlemen, we ate all the women, children and uly. The water purifier is busted and the only person who could fix it was Parkinson." "We ate her last week." "We ate her last week." "Nothing to eat, nothing to drink. So now what?" "I think it's time to do what our great great great grandparents spoke of - Go outside and restart civilization." "Ugh..."

Alt...

Penguin and Fish are dressed as the MATA brothers. Penguin: "I have the best ideas." Fish: "You're going to have to help us play the third brother." Girl, ecstatic: "School trip!" analognowhere presents: techno-mage in: Girl, Fish and Penguin stand outside their cave home. Fish: "... they gathered a bunch of thumbdrives with ancient CORPO tech and went on a journey to find people and machines they could poison." Penguin: "It's a good day to fuck shit up. Come on, bros!" Girl: "He's really into it!"

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The three brothers cross the ancient desolate land. "This suuuuuuuuuuuucks." "Shut up."

I found this screenshot again and I still think it's brilliant. The best OS overview I've ever read.
#Linux #FreeBSD

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Screenshot of a Reddit comment saying this: Time for my OS opinion that's guaranteed to be unpopular with someone... Sun Solaris used to be the OS that required overpriced proprietary hardware and still couldn't compete with Linux. That OS is now MacOS. MacOS used to be the colorful and friendly walled garden OS that your non-techie parents would enjoy but was completely useless to you as a power user. That OS is now Windows. Windows used to be the OS that could run a lot of apps, but was a headache to setup and maintain correctly and would sometimes blow up for no reason. That OS is now Linux. Linux used to be the techie and developer oriented command-line OS that was lacking in desktop apps and might not support your hardware, but once you got it going, was rock solid and had no limits. That OS is now FreeBSD.

Codeberg - We stay strong against hate and hatred

https://blog.codeberg.org/we-stay-strong-against-hate-and-hatred.html

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://blog.codeberg.org/we-stay-strong-against-hate-and-hatred.html

#linux #opensource #unix

UPDATE: I haven't seen Recall in action there. I was just asking the doctor how they'll deal with it.

This morning, I went to the doctor for a scheduled appointment. While she was looking at the results of blood tests from two years ago on the screen (and suggested repeating them for a follow-up), I realized she was using Windows 11. A detail came to mind. The doctor is extremely polite and friendly, so I asked her, "How do you handle the feature called Recall?" The doctor was taken aback and had no idea what I was talking about. I was about to drop the conversation, but she, being a serious professional, immediately called the technicians who manage their PCs to ask for clarification. They downplayed it, saying it's not an issue and that it's a feature "on all PCs, so we can't do anything about it." She started to express that she didn’t like it and wanted it deactivated. No luck: they won’t proceed because, according to them, even deactivating it is "a hack that could compromise future updates." She’s furious and will talk to her colleagues and the decision-makers. She wants secure systems because "there’s patient data involved."

In reality, patient data is stored on servers (which I haven't investigated), but everything that appears on the screen is, in my opinion, at risk.

I’ve offered to help them find a solution—because, if I'm right, all they need is LibreOffice and a browser. In that case, I’ll suggest one of the *BSD or Linux systems and do it for free.

I don’t want to make money off my doctor. I just want patient data to be (sufficiently) secure.

#IT #Recall #Windows #OwnYourData #Security #Privacy #RunBSD #Linux

If you are thinking of moving from Windows to Linux and are not sure where to start, here's the software that I am using day to day:

https://decoded.legal/blog/2024/09/running-a-law-firm-on-free-software-2024-edition/

(Work-focus, as that is where I spend most of my (computing) time, but I am Linux-only for personal computing too.)

And don't forget that many Free software programs have Windows versions too, so you can test before you leap.

Good luck!

#Linux #FOSS