Let's settle this once and for all! 👻
Linux vs. BSD! 😈
Which side are you on? 🐧🐡
#Linux #Debian #Arch #ArchLinux #Fedora #FedoraLinux #BSD #OpenBSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD
Options: (choose one)
Edited 28d ago
netbsd
My 7 year old heard about the netbsd toaster and now wants to try to build one. Has anyone found a toaster model that has enough guts (and the right guts) to run #netbsd recently? This is outside my baileywick so I'm hoping there's some prior art.
When they ask me how many ports/architectures I need, my answer is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFDcoX7s6rE
#NetBSD
#NetBSD
Edited 47d ago
Can some #netbsd folks help me out? I'm trying to install it in a VM (first time I'm having a look at it).
I downloaded the current DVD iso.
I went through the installation, configured the hard disk, installed from DVD, and got to the config menu. I'm following this guide here:
https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-exinst.html#exinst-system-configuration
I configured my network device and verified in the shell that I could ping the outside world. I set a root password, set the correct timezone, selected /bin/sh as the root shell and now I'm at step e, "enable installation of binary packages".
I left all the defaults, entered "bash tree" as additional packages as shown in figure 3.37 and selected option x, "install pkgin and update package summary".
This then brings me to the state shown in the screenshot, where I'd expect something to be downloaded and configured, but nothing ever happens, it stays like this forever.
What do I do here? I've been following the instructions up until this point, but here I'm stuck...
I'm really delighted to see the real buzz around #NetBSD now that Linux has descended into slop and the kernel team have turned their backs on mentoring a new generation of contributors.
Does anyone know if there's a WIP driver for Intel AX200 wireless NICs on #NetBSD? I have a laptop I'm tempted to install it on but I don't see any compatible drivers in the wireless driver matrix https://wiki.netbsd.org/wifi_driver_state_matrix/.
If not, does anyone have any idea how difficult it is to port drivers from #OpenBSD? I'd be tempted to try porting `iwx(4)` but have never done something like that before.
I am intrigued by #NetBSD and I think I'll try dual booting when I have some free time. My big question is, how do you fill gaps when there isn't an application available in pkgsrc? Say for instance I wanted to run Vivaldi, am I SOL until they decide to port over, if ever? Or, do you run a virtualized application instead and if so, is that performant?
I see that #FreeBSD has the larger following but I don't like their fence sitting on LLM contributions and don't want to get into it only for them to make a decision I disagree with.
I spent all this time migrating to #Arch only for Linus to give me the ick. Which, of course really sucks because I tend to like Arch. But, I think history repeats itself in a way here and it's time to start looking elsewhere and seeing if the jump is realistic.
Edited 47d ago
Since it might be time to switch to a non-ensloppified distro + desktop soon(-ish): I think I'm going to install NetBSD + Mate on the old RPi3 gathering dust in my drawer. Just to see how well it works and if I'd be comfortable with the Gnome 2 experience in 2026.
As many of you know, I've been getting back into running BSD after 20 or so years away from it. I'm wanting to get NetBSD running, mainly because of the no-AI policy, but I've been struggling and its frustrated me a bit. Well, to be honest, quite a lot. To get BSD running on my desktop, laptop, and small server, and so I can move away form Linux, I'm going to go ahead and get FreeBSD up and running on my hardware. I know that they have a questionable AI policy but this will get me over to BSD and then I can move from there. Plus, FreeBSD has some really, really good documentation to get me started.
Question: Is it possible to game on NetBSD or is it server and programmer only? Can you run steam on it? Is there Wine and Proton? Will modern AMD graphics cards work?
NetBSD Playing with disklabels https://lobste.rs/s/qknavp #netbsd
https://movq.de/blog/postings/2026-09-25/0/POSTING-en.html
On near-bare #NetBSD installation installation of #ShellCheck package requires "3198M" additional space.
Do not remember that package to be of such size (but smaller on FreeBSD v14, Rocky Linux v8) ... or, am I imagining the numbers 
Simple NetBSD webserver by @bsandro https://lobste.rs/s/hzrmwz #netbsd
https://bsandro.tech/posts/simple-netbsd-webserver/
A Love Letter to the Super Dimension Fortress via @nemin https://lobste.rs/s/t8epqj #culture #netbsd #web
https://brennan.day/a-love-letter-to-the-super-dimension-fortress/
Being able to run sysinst at any time is a #NetBSD super power
Whilst looking at possibly purchasing a ThinkPad T480 I thought I'd play around with the #NetBSD live image on my #Thinkpad P14s gen 1 AMD. So far I can boot Xorg and the touchpad works even two finger scrolling. Obviously the AX200 WiFi doesn't but I'll dig out my USB WiFi dongle as it'll work albeit not full n speeds but upto 54.
Suspend doesn't seem to work as yet and I've still to test the onboard audio too. But hey it works. Oh I did notice on the Ethernet it's speed is halved as under FreeBSD I can pull around 900/100 where on NetBSD I get 350/100.
But I got the same results on another machine a Dell Optiplex 3080 so it must be a NetBSD Ethernet issue??
Suspend doesn't seem to work as yet and I've still to test the onboard audio too. But hey it works. Oh I did notice on the Ethernet it's speed is halved as under FreeBSD I can pull around 900/100 where on NetBSD I get 350/100.
But I got the same results on another machine a Dell Optiplex 3080 so it must be a NetBSD Ethernet issue??
Edited 13d ago
NetBSD adds a new beginner-friendly text editor called atto https://lobste.rs/s/m6fw0x #editors #netbsd
https://mastodon.sdf.org/@netbsd/117518160563539748
To ease the transition for new users, #NetBSD -current now includes an alternative editor to vi(1) and xedit(1) in its base system, atto(1). https://man.netbsd.org/atto.1
It is a modeless screen-based editor similar to nano, pico, xedit, or emacs. It is only 48 kilobytes, making it suitable for inclusion in the rescue system.
(This is real, but I'm honestly missing an opportunity by not posting it on 1 April. Let the editor wars commence!)
Currently building a new #NetBSD kernel for my #ThinkPad gen 1 P14s amd with
amdgpu and NET_MPSAFE . I wonder if my amdgpu will then use the correct driver without issue and my ethernet speed double from 450 download to about 900mb like when it runs #FreeBSD for example? Time will tell and yes I do like a challenge. #RunBSD
Breaking my #NetBSD 11.0 install by switching to latest just because. Let's see if it still works after a
sysupgrade ? 😉
🍵 
Post your #NeverSlop tech stack!
I'm thinking...
- OS: #NetBSD, #Illumos, #Haiku, #RedoxOS or #9front
- Editor: #ed, #nvi, or #VimClassic
- eBooks: #clbre??? (Doesn't seem to have any downloads yet); #arcalibre?
- Social: (egad, #Mastodon is already sloppified?!?) #GoToSocial, #snac2, hopefully #LittleFedi
- Audio editing: #Tenacity
- Browser: #KonformBrowser
- Image editing: libvips
- Data/file encryption: #LibreSSL, ccrypt
- Password Manager: #ChiPass
- Terminal Multiplexer: GNU #Screen and #OpenTmux
- Email: #aerc, #clawsMail
(I haven't tried all of these yet)
Edited 44d ago