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

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #search #searchengine #frogfind #NetBSD #Links #unix #lynx #unix

Catch of the Day: The text terminal on NetBSD lives! 🐧

Hey Retro Fans!

Many of us use FrogFind on graphical systems like Windows 95 or Mac OS 9. But at its core, FrogFind is a text-first project. Just how well this works was proven to us today by this guest:

Links 2.8 on NetBSD!

Among the BSD operating systems (the purist cousins of Linux), NetBSD is legendary for its portability. It's not for nothing that the NetBSD community's motto is: "Of course it runs NetBSD!" Whether on old toasters, a Sega Dreamcast, or obscure server hardware—NetBSD just runs.

The fact that someone today opens a terminal under NetBSD and fires up the text-based browser "Links" (a direct relative of Lynx) to search the web via FrogFind is pure command-line romance. No flashing banners, no intrusive JavaScript, just lightning-fast, raw text on one of the cleanest UNIX derivatives in the world.

Stay purist and keep hacking on the shell!
Your FrogFind Team 🐸

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NetBSD

This Friday, I will be speaking about UNIX V4 for @lindsey's Languages, Systems, and Data Seminar! I'm excited to demonstrate programming with a teletype, as that hasn't fit into my other talks.

If you're interested, email (see my site) or DM me for a Zoom invite.

Abstract: We recently recovered UNIX V4 from a 1974 magnetic tape at the University of Utah. This version of the UNIX operating system, thought to have been lost, was the 19th copy distributed to the public, just months after the first public announcement. It was originally acquired by Martin Newell while managing the computer graphics laboratory, and it was likely connected to his foundational research in procedural modeling and the famous Utah teapot. UNIX V4 was the culmination of the effort to rewrite the kernel in C, made possible by the introduction of structs to the language, and has shaped all modern operating systems. In this talk, I put this artifact into context within the larger history of UNIX and demonstrate period-appropriate software development with a paper-printing teletype and replica PDP-11.

#unix #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing

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UNIX V4: History and recovery THalia Archibald UNIX V4 tape with VT220 and PiDP-11.

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

I just spent longer than anyone ever should to figure out that rev does not change / into \. #Tired #Unix

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #search #searchengine #frogfind #NetBSD #arcticfox #unix

Catch of the Day: "Of course it runs NetBSD!" 🐡🦊

Hey Retro Fans!

Did you have a good weekend? Our bouncer at the FrogFind pond was certainly busy and waved a guest through yesterday that put a massive smile on our faces:

ArcticFox 52.9 on NetBSD!

Among hardcore Unix nerds, there is a famous catchphrase: "Of course it runs NetBSD!" This open-source operating system is legendary for its portability. It has been ported to run on almost anything with a processor—from old toasters and Sega Dreamcasts to massive server racks.

The fact that someone navigated to our pond using NetBSD is already awesome. But the combination with the ArcticFox browser makes it a masterpiece. ArcticFox is a lovingly maintained community fork (based on Pale Moon) specifically kept alive to enable modern browsing on exotic architectures, PowerPC Macs, and old UNIX derivatives.

Cheers to the tinkerers keeping exotic systems online!

Your FrogFind Team 🐸

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NetBSD

I installed #NetBSD on my #Thinkpad T580. Amazingly, it works. If you select to install XDM (X Display Manager) during installation, then you boot to a graphical login that loads a very primitive X environment with CTWM a window manager for X that gives off distinct 1992 vibes, which happens to be the year it was created. It's an austere #UNIX environment. Perfect, honestly. There are modern desktops in the package repository. My first impressions are A+.

A new UNIX snapshot from 1977 to be released soon!!!

#unix #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing

NetBSD turns 33 this Sunday! 🚩

To celebrate 33 years of clean code, portability, and zero bloat, Challenging the rest of the fediverse to help hit this year's funding goals.

Also do drop a screenshot of your uptime, uname -a, or a pic of the weirdest hardware you've got running NetBSD right now. (RockPro64 NPF routers or Pi's hooked up to retro CRTs highly encouraged).

Throw some money at the developers keeping the real UNIX alive:

https://www.netbsd.org/donations/

#NetBSD #UNIX #RetroComputing #OpenSource #runbsd #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #Linux

"How it all began"

I saw an ad for this CD set at a very low price in a computer magazine. I decided to give it a try, enticed by the low cost and this 'alternative solution to Windows', and in late 1996 I ordered this set.
When it arrived, I was fascinated (having never used a Unix or Unix-like system before) but a bit daunted by the lack of support for the main applications I knew. A few months later, though, I decided to give it another go and from that point, I never looked back. Whether it was Linux, one of the BSDs, or something similar (but Unix or Unix-like), I was not going back to systems like Windows.

My #ThrowbackThursday today is probably one of the most significant in my computing life.

#Linux #TechHistory #OpenSource #Unix #TechNostalgia #ComputingMemories #BSD #TechnologyEvolution #OldSchoolComputing #1996 #ITLife

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This is a photo of a 6-CD set case for "InfoMagic LINUX Developer's Resource". The CD case cover has a whimsical cartoon character on the front, which appears to be an anthropomorphic penguin dressed as a wizard, complete with a wizard's hat and a magic wand. The character is standing on a stylized representation of the globe. The background is blue and there is a yellow banner on the top right corner that says "QuickStart Guide inside". The packaging suggests that this is a software resource kit for Linux developers from the era when software was commonly distributed on CDs.

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This is a photo of the back cover of the "InfoMagic LINUX Developer's Resource CD-ROM" case. The cover lists the contents of the 6-CD set, including distributions like Red Hat 3.0.3 "Picasso", Slackware 3.1, Debian GNU/Linux 1.1.4, and others, with various kernel sources up to version 2.0.12+. It mentions the inclusion of a "QuickStart" installation guide and additional software like X-Free86 Version 3.1.2, with references to online resources. There's also information about the included on-line documentation like "Installation & Getting Started Guide" by Matt Welsh and "Network Administrators Guide", as well as file format details. Contact information for InfoMagic, including telephone, fax, email, and web address, is listed, along with the company's address in Flagstaff, AZ. A barcode is present on the bottom right. The text indicates the product is from 1996, providing a glimpse into the distribution of Linux software in the mid-1990s.

sysadmin socks && Thongs.

#NetBSD #Linux #FreeBSD #runbsd #unix

A successful boot is often just beyond the moment you feel like giving up on that obscure piece of hardware. Keep hacking—the moment you can finally say, 'Of course it runs NetBSD,' is closer than you think.
#NetBSD 🚩 #RunBSD #Unix #Linux

pwning #NetBSD -aarch64 (ARM)
#RunBSD #Linux #unix

https://www.feyrer.de/NetBSD/bx/blosxom.cgi/nb_20260308_1932.html

#Retrocomputing #UNIX #SlowComputing

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Neofetch output showing the config: NetBSD 11.0 RC2, AMD 486-class CPU, 128MB RAM

#Retrocomputing #UNIX #NotAToaster

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Screenfetch output showing an Xterm window with the specifications of the machine: NetBSD 11, Intel 686-class CPU, R200-class GPU, 492MiB RAM (?)

#NetBSD 🚩: for when you need your OS to run on anything, including prism power!

#Linux #unix #runbsd

#NetBSD Fun Facts
#Linux #unix #runbsd

Hear me out #AI is trick by big deep tech corporations to harm #FOSS orgs. #Linux #RunBSD #unix

@osnews

Well, learn something new every day :)

I just tried this on #NetBSD and it worked as described. Since #slackware now has nvi, it will be interesting for people there too.

#unix

Celebrating #WorldRadioDay with the most portable OS on the planet. 🌍

Whether it's the embedded controller inside a vintage radio or the legendary NetBSD Toaster 🍞, the ham/ 📻category in #pkgsrc has you covered.

Why just make toast when you can transmit packets over the airwaves at the same time?
#NetBSD #SDR #PacketRadio #HamRadio #VintageComputing #Linux #unix

System Administration, Week 1: UNIX History

We're borrowing this video from our "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" class to give a brief summary of the history of the UNIX family of operating systems.

https://youtu.be/3H7SQWTR6Dw

#sysadmin #devops #sre #unix

All of those things are absolutely wonderful and make many of todays software developers look ... spoiled? What I want, however - and what I love doing - is making this old hardware do stuff its makers never dreamt of, things that are as far removed from their time as possible. That's why I will, if #NetBSD permits, run bleeding edge BSD on a 286-on-486steroids, and why I run web+ftp+irc servers (yes, multitaskign) on one 286 and multiple BBS nodes on a 386 - like one used to do, of course.

I cannot state often enough how amazing it is that there's still software developed today that will work under such constraints.

#RunBSD #EndOfRant

https://github.com/ltning/sshbench

#unix #ssh #benchmark #shellscript #bourne #runbsd

#unix #NetBSD

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Picture of NetBSD X11 desktop with htop(1) and hot-babe CPU monitor.

#unix #runbsd #retrocomputing #486

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Console screenshot. Plaintext 80x50 mode, with screen(1) running htop(1) and neofetch(1), split horizontally.