Thought-provoking words on #NetBSD posted by someone from Reddit who seems to know their stuff (https://old.reddit.com/r/openbsd/comments/1tki5xp/how_long_have_you_all_been_using_openbsd/oo2fa39/):

"NetBSD is a fine project. It just isn't on-par with OpenBSD's support for things it claims to support. Linux's kernel+GNU userspace would still work fine for many systems that NetBSD/OpenBSD supports if they wouldn't have started going all-in on adopting things like Rust."

"...while [NetBSD] claims to support a lot of old hardware and it does to some extent they are not doing as much testing as the OpenBSD project does. I can always be sure if OpenBSD claims to support a piece of hardware that it'll at least boot on it. This isn't true of NetBSD. There are a lot of older architectures NetBSD claims to support but if you attempt to install NetBSD on them you'll quickly run into various types of errors (if it boots at all). They just don't seem to have enough man power to keep support going for a lot of things they used to support or they aren't testing current versions of their OS on them. Most likely, whomever initially ported NetBSD over years ago just hasn't checked in awhile. But the release notes and man pages rarely seem to get updated.

This isn't 100% their fault. It's hard to keep a lot of things building on older architectures and machines now. Since a lot of projects have left everything but x86 and ARM behind and don't care if they break support for things outside of those two architectures. Hell even within x86 and ARM they don't care if they break 32-bit support and now expect you to run 64-bit."

Interestingly, #FreeBSD comes with #nvi2 in base, while #OpenBSD and #NetBSD seem to be running #nvi 1:

FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE-p12
~
~
~
Version 2.2.2 (2025-10-08) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

OpenBSD 7.3
(7.9 is still running the same version)
~
~
~
Version 1.79 (10/23/96) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

NetBSD 10.1
~
~
~
Version (1.81.6-2013-11-20nb4) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

They all seem to have nvi2 available as packages, though, which #Debian, oddly, does not.

rld@Intrepid:~$ uname -sr
FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE-p12
rld@Intrepid:~$ pkg search nvi |grep '^nvi2'
nvi2-2.2.2                     Updated implementation of the ex/vi text editor
rld@Intrepid:~$ 

#(searching openbsd online)
rld@Intrepid:~$ searchall -o nvi |grep ^nvi
nvi-2.2.2                (list)   with wide         and files limited by
nvi-2.2.2-iconv          (list)   with wide         and files limited by

rldane@rosa.tilde.pink$ uname -sr
NetBSD 10.1
rldane@rosa.tilde.pink$ pkgin search nvi |grep ^nvi |grep -v nvidia
nvi-1.81.6nb13       Berkeley nvi with additional features
nvi-m17n-1.79.20040608nb11  Clone of vi/ex, with multilingual patch
nvi2-2.2.0           Multibyte fork of the nvi editor for BSD
rldane@rosa.tilde.pink$ 

~ $ head -1 /etc/os-release 
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"
~ $ apt-cache search nvi |grep -E '^nvi2? '
nvi - 4.4BSD re-implementation of vi
~ $ 

I am assisting an educational podcast project doing the sysadmin for them. Happy that I was able to advocate for #BSD. We went with httpd(8) #OpenBSD for this, in the end it is just the feed.xml and some MP3/M4A-files. So exactly what the web is for. However, #Apple refuses the feed saying httpd does not support byte-ranges. Looking at the change logs, it should be supported since 5.8 (https://www.openbsd.org/plus58.html). And testing all this with curl does return a 206 and provides me with a working chunk of data. What am I missing here? #NetBSD #FreeBSD #smallweb #podcast #podcasts

It's a bit of a shame that this fella went to all of that trouble digging through Illumos.

https://youtube.com/v/tUqHsv6JarY?lc=UgwAiVOVkz-sP_j-H7J4AaABAg

#Illumos is one of the few platforms that does not have the <sys/ttydefaults.h> header from 4BSD. It was ironically quite the wrong place to look. The GNU and musl C libraries have the header, as do all of #FreeBSD, #OpenBSD, and #NetBSD.

The problem is that although <sys/ttydefaults.h> has been around since 1983 (1993 in its current form), almost no-one, apart from people like me who write terminal emulators and whatnot and cannot just use cfmakesane(), knows that it is there. It isn't in any manual.

Which leads to things like stty in GNU coreutils going all around the houses to do something simple, too.

#ttydefaults #termios #stty

@gumnos

You can resize horizontal splits with :res[+-]size
There doesn't seem to be a way to resize vsplits. XD

Oh...😅... any resize to the vi window itself causes all of the spits to go into the background. That's fun.

Confirmed that there's no :vs in OpenBSD vi. It does have :res+n.

The #NetBSD vi does have vsplits, though, and it even draw a pretty pipe character so you can see it more clearly ;)
It also accepts the :res command.

Sale mi nombre en la página de donaciones de NetBSD: https://www.netbsd.org/donations/2026.html #bsd #netbsd #opensource

@moribundo Es lo que pasa cuando quien manda son los ladrones corporativos de siempre. Este es un fenómeno que empezó, como siempre, muy lentamente hace años y ahora se van viendo los resultados. Por eso para todo lo que puedo uso #NetBSD y en GNU/Linux por lo menos distros sensatas que se intentan separar de estas "modernidades corporativas" como SystemD y otras hierbas.

Copying Remote Command Output to Your macOS Clipboard

A small trick to copy command output from a remote ssh session directly into the local macOS clipboard, using OSC 52 and a tiny shell script.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2026/05/26/copying-remote-command-output-to-your-macos-clipboard/

#ITNotes #macOS #Mac #Apple #shell #ssh #Linux #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #illumos #Terminal #Clipboard

Installing OpenBSD on the NanoPi R2S plus

Once I figured out which files to write to the SD card for the NanoPi R2S plus and in what order for #netbsd, installing #openbsd was a breeze.

The second 1G network card is working—the very one that #FreeBSD doesn't recognize ;)

Alt...

Installing OpenBSD on the NanoPi R2S plus

Pardon the French, but fuck I love #NetBSD.

Had a long train ride home, so SSH’d into my Shonen Jump box at home, then into my old Solaris box, then my Pentium 1. It all still works, and it’s wonderful. Wanted to try something, built a little chroot, done. It’s all so predictable and consistent and wonderful.

And… increasingly rare.

—
* My old Sun box. Which at some point ran Solaris/SunOS. You know what I mean.

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟱/𝟮𝟱 (Valuable News - 2026/05/25) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/05/25/valuable-news-2026-05-25/

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

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

Nah hear me out, there is no way cats are real.
#NetBSD

Alt...

Photograph of an old Acer Aspire One netbook displaying the Wikipedia article about cats. It's running NetBSD on ctwm. The xeyes applet is open, and there is a window in the third workspace that just says "GAY SEX"

Tomorrow I am going to install 10.1 again and follow above guide again. If it will not work, then...I do not know.

BTW OpenBSD advantage is that AMD GPU works out of box, disadvantage is "mediocre" support of non-FFS file systems.

This took a really long time :)
The instructions at https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/evbarm/rockchip/ don't work—they don't mention uboot.img and trust.bin—so I got them from FreeBSD, though they're probably available in #NetBSD somewhere too :)

Alt...

Netbsd boot on Nanopi R2S Plus

Happy #BrothersDay from the sibling who runs on absolutely everything (yes, even the family toaster)! 🚩🍞

Taking a moment to send some love to my Unix-like family today:

To FreeBSD 😈: Thanks for always bringing the heavy-lifting and server muscle. Nobody I’d rather share a kernel subsystem or network stack with! 💪

To OpenBSD 🐡: My brilliantly paranoid sibling. Don't worry, I double-checked the locks, audited the code, and closed the blinds before posting this. Stay secure! 🔒

And a special shoutout to our loud, monolithic cousin, Linux 🐧! You might be everywhere these days, but we still love having you at the FOSS family barbecue. Just leave some market share for the rest of us, okay? 🍔

Here’s to the entire open-source community. No matter what kernel you're running, we're all pushing the ecosystem forward together! 🧡

#NetBSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #Linux #FOSS #OpenSource #Unix #BrothersDay #RunBSD

This is so damn cool, cloning the #Sun3/60, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpl1q2uuks4

#sunmicrosystems #m68k #sunos #netbsd

I heavily hacked syndaemon to work on #NetBSD. It uses an entirely different mechanism to disable the touchpad. It sets a sysctl parameter for the pms driver that sets the touchpad sensitivity so low that nothing registers, lol. In order to accomplish this, you have to run it as root. It's a terrible hack and it took me longer than I would like to admit.

https://codeberg.org/thezerobit/syndaemon-netbsd/src/branch/main/README.txt

This officially resolves my biggest gripe with NetBSD on my laptop.

NetBSD on Raspberry Pi 3 (edited)

Raspberry Pi 3 is the best device which I can find. WiFi and GPU work.

#netbsd

Happy Weekend! In a few hours, Open Source Conference 2026 Japan in #Nagoya will be held at the Fukiage Hall in Chikusa Ward:

https://event.ospn.jp/osc2026-nagoya/

One of their talks is from the Nagoya #BSD Users Group, and seems to target #NetBSD in particular. That sounds pretty awesome, and definitely one of the ones I'm going to attend.

https://event.ospn.jp/osc2026-nagoya/session/2296979

I wonder what the chances are I'll find anyone from Fedi in there? Anyone feeling like dropping by "boring city" on a Saturday? :P

#OSC2026 #OpenSource #Conference

The requirements are pretty low:

• NO IPv4
• min. IPv6 /48 subnet routed
• Network (ARIN/RIPE/…) should be personalized (netname, abuse,..)
• Optionally: BYOIP
• ARPA delegation for the net to my nameservers
• min. 2x 500G disk space (SATA SSD or better)
• min. 48G memory per node
• bandwidth doesn’t really matter (100Mbit is fine)
• Remote MGMT to systems

#bsd #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #openindiana #education #learning #opensource

@bpl you will generally see your email at https://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-install/index.html if not do reach out to team on IRC #netbsd-code @netbsd

I have announced the winner of the third weekly giveaway:

https://retroedgetech.substack.com/p/unexpected-xfce-thinkcentre-tiny

#Linux #NetBSD #computer #giveAway #TinyMiniMicro #xfce

Happy International Day for Biological Diversity! 🌱

A diverse ecosystem is a strong ecosystem. In the tech world, NetBSD brings vital diversity by proving that clean, portable, and secure code can run on virtually any architecture. This adaptability keeps computing open and accessible to everyone.

Let's keep the digital ecosystem diverse. Consider supporting the NetBSD Foundation today by contributing code, writing documentation, or making a donation! 💻🚩
#NetBSD #BiodiversityDay #OpenSource #TechDiversity #FOSS #RetroComputing #Sustainability #Linux #RunBSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD

My #1 issue with #NetBSD on my Thinkpad is the trackpad handling. The program `syndaemon` isn't available probably because NetBSD does trackpad / mouse handling a bit differently than other operating systems. (It's a program that disables the trackpad while typing. Without it, I'm constantly getting erroneous movements with my palms while typing.)

Anyways, I'm looking to port it to NetBSD and have it just disable the unified trackpad/mouse device while typing.

@bpl https://mastodon.sdf.org/@netbsd/116537862178252362

#NetBSD is clear on policy noAI will be accepted in source. That's why we need to fund the foundation

But at the end of day I am hypocrite because I need Fish Linux for y*-dlp and gov websites.
#noAI

@joel

OK, the toasters will have to wait for #netbsd 11.

And then, we dial all the toasters to 11!

Had to finish my #NetBSD 11.0 RC3 test write-up after upgrading some machines to RC4 this week, so this post has straddle marks.

https://jspath55.blogspot.com/2026/05/netbsd-11-rc3-heat-rc4-and-more.html

@joel

ESPECIALLY the toasters!!!

Wait... We are talking about #OpenBSD here, not #NetBSD!! 🤓

@thezerobit

From what I’ve briefly looked into, it might even be possible to set up a root filesystem with ZFS on #netbsd. I’m not sure what the comments about memory usage are referring to—I have several VPS instances, as well as some home machines running on #OrangePi with 512MB of RAM, and they all run perfectly fine with ZFS on FreeBSD.

I think I’ll try to see how NetBSD ZFS performs in real-world conditions with 512MB🤣

https://wiki.netbsd.org/zfs

I've made more progress with getting #NetBSD running and mostly usable on my Thinkpad T580. I started a document with my notes on how to set up a usable desktop. Some of this information is missing from the NetBSD Guide, Wiki, and FAQ & HOWTOs pages. Some of it was buried deep in man pages, or found by extensively searching pkgsrc repository. https://codeberg.org/thezerobit/public_notes/src/branch/main/netbsd_notes.md

I have yet to figure out how to automatically disable the touchpad while typing.

I'm upgrading #NetBSD on my laptop to the latest RC (11.0 RC4) in this coffee shop, soaking up all the Wi-Fi bandwidth downloading source sets which I didn't realize are not on the install image but need to be downloaded on the fly.

Casually reading The UNIX Programming Environment by Kernighan and Pike. I've been Linuxing for nearly 30 years, so it's not like I'm a stranger to this environment, but it's nice to peruse one of its sacred texts.
#UNIX #BSD

@bentsukun Is there something wrong with Postfix in RC4? #NetBSD

Announcing #BSDCan 2026 Travel Grants

Deadline: Friday the 19th!

To encourage and enable more first-time and returning attendees at BSDCan 2026, this year’s travel grant is a free room for up to five nights in a shared-bathroom private suite at the 90U residences.

Full details:

https://blog.bsdcan.org/2026/05/14/announcing-bsdcan-2026-travel-grants

#FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD

NetBSD 11 RC4 is here! Huge thanks to all the devs getting this ready for the final release.

Quick reminder since we are almost halfway through the year: The NetBSD Foundation needs our help to keep things running. If you appreciate clean code, software freedom, and an OS that literally runs on anything, OS which rejects A.I. slop, please consider making a donation. Let's help them hit their 2026 goals!
Grab the RC: https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_11_0_rc4_available
Support the foundation: https://www.netbsd.org/donations/
#NetBSD #FOSS #OpenSource #antiaislop #Linux

#NetBSD 11.0 RC4 just dropped!

"We found a few more issues to fix in RC4, and also updated a lot
of bundled third party code due to security issues, including
OpenSSH, OpenSSL, Postfix, bind, xz and more.

"We would love to release this state as 11.0 soonish and hope no big
fallout will be found in this RC."

https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-11.0_RC4/