Sell me on your non Gnome / non KDE / non XFCE desktop environment or window manager of choice. Im in the mood to try something new. Im not a tiling window guy. Extra credit if it's in #FreeBSD's ports. #linux #floss #DesktopEnvironment #WindowManager #BSD
New 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗕𝗦𝗗 𝟭𝟱.𝟬-𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 [Valuable FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE Updates] article.
https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/11/30/valuable-freebsd-15-0-release-updates/
#verblog #freebsd #improvements #release #updates
RFC: what are the highlights of FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE?
＂In the 15.0-RELEASE announcement email, I list a few highlights. Obviously pkgbase is going to be one of them, but I'm looking for a list of 5 or 6 items, and I don't know what you as users care about the most.
＂So… can you help out your release engineer and tell me what you personally thing is the most exciting change in 15.0?＂
― Colin Percival at <https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1pa8ait/what_are_the_highlights_of_150release/>
(The announcement is scheduled for Tuesday 2nd December – <https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/>.)
FreeBSD 15.0 (almost)-RELEASE, using pkgbase, on my Ryzen 9 MiniPC (and compared to openSUSE Tumbleweed):
- Full disk encryption works beautifully via GELI, as usual.
- Installing KDE is easy and it works perfectly on Wayland.
- All my main apps work. Others will run via the Linuxulator or Wine (Linux browsers, WinBox for MikroTik, etc).
- The fan seems more relaxed.
- The system generally feels snappier.
- Native ZFS. I can autosnapshot every 5 minutes. If I try to do this with btrfs - snapshots of the home directory included and quotas enabled - the system hangs while handling them (which is why Tumbleweed doesn’t snapshot home by default).
- The media keys on my keyboard work, but volume control uses huge steps and 30 percent is already extremely loud. This can be fixed. The monitor brightness setting is also a bit off, but I don't care.
- amdgpu works perfectly.
- The wifi card works. I haven’t tested the speed because I immediately installed the realtek-re-kmod driver to use the 2.5 Gbit ethernet connection.
- Suspend doesn’t work. This is a big problem for me. It’s probably more psychological than technical, but I can’t leave the computer powered for hours when I’m not using it. I already have servers running 24/7 here. I even considered putting my Qotom FreeBSD server in a VM. It would probably work, but next summer it might be an issue because temperatures here aren’t low and spinning disks don’t love heat (and I don’t love their noise).
- It’s stable and reliable. I’ve done almost everything and it just works, as expected.
- Some small glitches remain, mostly due to missing configuration or packages (I didn’t tune anything. I just installed it and started using it).
A much smoother experience than a year ago, when I bought it.
Will I keep using FreeBSD on this minipc?
I’m not sure yet, since Tumbleweed works great and the lack of suspend really influences my choice. I'll contact Aymeric and try to offer some help to improve this.
For now, I’ll keep it on an external SSD and switch from time to time, especially when I know I’ll be using the minipc for hours.
Ever messed up an update? We got you covered! Simply restore your Snapshot!
You can now also manage (create, delete, restore) a snapshot of your Box! If you ever messed up your application, OS update or anything else - simply go back to your last snapshot and try again! This way, you can test and learn #BSD even better and easier!
cc: @gyptazy
#education #opensource #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #RUNBSD #learning #ipv6 #freevm #freevps #community #fosdem #hosting #selfhosting #snapshot
FreeBSD 15.0 Now Available
The FreeBSD Project has announced the availability of FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE, introducing updated toolchains, enhanced hardware support, improved security features, and key updates across the base system. This release continues the Project’s focus on stability, long-term maintainability, and consistent engineering.
We encourage you to review the release notes and upgrade guidance
Read the full announcement: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/announce/
#FreeBSD #OpenSource #FreeBSD15
The slides, the video, and the text behind my presentation at EuroBSDCon 2024 - 'Why and how we're migrating many of our servers from Linux to the BSDs.'
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2024/10/03/i-solve-problems-eurobsdcon/
#ITNotes #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #RunBSD #IT #SysAdmin #EuroBSDCon #EBC24 #EuroBSDCon24 #EuroBSDCon2024 #NoteHUB
Quick #Freebsd people, I need a dual boot laptop for FreeBSD and latest Windows. Anyone have suggestions? Something that is not expensive preferable!
Plasma visually bugged following an upgrade on FreeBSD
https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1lne10b/plasma_visually_bugged_following_an_upgrade_on/
I found an old Acer laptop running #windows98 It has an external CD-ROM unit which doesn't work until drivers are loaded. Same for USB, so I can't boot it with anything except Windows.
I would like to give it a new life installing #freeBSD ... Can you suggest a way to install it from within Windows 98?
Thanks to the #FreeBSD Handbook on Ports and the following page, I finally got around to building the drm-kmod port and dependencies so that amdgpu runs properly on 14.2. 
https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/freebsd-14-2-graphics-fix.96365/
Confirming a fix in FreeBSD 14.3-BETA3
https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1khf860/comment/mstkxfs/
FreeBSD: new package repositories for kernel modules
https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-current/2025-May/007611.html
For FreeBSD 14.3-BETA4:
https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1ku1qff/freebsd_143beta4_now_available/mu4e3d8/
FreeBSD: icons are broken in Geany, GIMP, HandBrake, PDF Arranger, Remmina, and various other applications.
In addition to the four screenshots here in Mastodon:
― https://i.imgur.com/iJ2eKe6.png – the Save As dialogue in Firefox (the File Open dialogue is similarly broken)
― https://i.imgur.com/j3LVxGP.png – Geany
…
Breakage was first observed following an upgrade on 28th April. Broken again with the most recent round of updates, a few hours ago.
I can reactivate a boot environment that has recent base packages alongside increasingly outdated port packages, however this is far from ideal.
Can anyone explain the breakage?
Thanks
https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1k9wjv5/comment/
Postscript: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@grahamperrin/114567643239283752
FreeBSD pkg version 2.2.0 seems to simplify things for users of FreeBSD-kmods repositories.
Big thanks to @_bapt_
https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1leqsbt/comment/myuzra2/
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
