"240 million PCs could end up in landfills when Windows 10 support ends"
Sure.
Or they could be repurposed with #Linux or Chrome OS Flex, or #FreeBSD, and we can stop being so freaking dramatic.
If you just browse, watch Netflix, shop, net banking, etc, Linux distributions like Mint or Ubuntu could save you money. It is an environment-friendly option.
Today, something odd happened to me, slightly concerning but which, fortunately, ended on a positive note and with deep reflection.
They're doing some renovations in my office, so I sat down at a café table to work. I had with me an old HP laptop running FreeBSD. Ferrara is generally a peaceful city, but lately, some groups of youngsters have been causing trouble, going around bothering people, and in extreme cases, starting fights.
Today, it was my turn.
As they roamed around trying to provoke others, two of them approached me and began touching my laptop. They mocked me, jesting (not so playfully) about how ancient my computer was and how "they needed a computer," picking it up and examining it. Politely, I told them I needed it for work and it had all my files, so I couldn't just hand it over. It was broad daylight, but no one else was around at that moment. One of them noticed something unusual - "Where's the Windows menu? Is this Linux?"
"No, it's FreeBSD. Have you ever heard of it?" Their surprised expressions said it all. The entire group gathered, sat on the ground, and listened intently for about 15 minutes. I stalled, hoping for other people to arrive, so I wasn't alone.
Eventually, they got up, told me I was "old" but cool, and that they would immediately try out the BSDs (they were particularly intrigued by OpenBSD's security features - which they didn't grasp fully but saw as "professional hacker stuff"). They gave me a high-five, peacefully, without bothering anyone further.
Now, I'm left wondering: did they leave me alone because they learned something intriguing from me, because other people arrived, or are they just bored teenagers causing issues to pass the time - and got engrossed in something new, hence shifting their focus temporarily? All I know is I was relieved to get back to my office and from there, hear the rain outside, which usually deters these boys from troubling others.
I can say that today, FreeBSD saved me from very different problems than it usually does 😃
The Unix timestamp will begin with 17 this Tuesday 14 November 2023 10:13:20 PM UTC. Here is how to see Unix time on your system. For #macos#freebsd#bsd run
date -ur 1700000000
"A frequent request from the #FreeBSD community and fan base is a curated list of laptops validated to run FreeBSD out of the box. To this end, we've recently begun discussions with one of our favorite laptop companies, Framework
Stay tuned!" (Edited out Puter from the bird site)
Poll: How frequently do you apply security patches and software updates to your #Linux, #Unix, or #FreeBSD server or desktop? Please boost for reach. TIA. 🙏
if someone is interested in contributing to #FreeBSD but do not have ideas, here is one: "fix API compatibility between our libusb and linux's one without breaking ABI", don't hesitate to ask me for more detail
Poll: Have you ever run the command "rm -rf /" as a root user on your #Linux, #FreeBSD (or *BSD), #macOS, or #Unix system? Please share if you have and how it happened. Let's be honest. Please boost for reach. TIA.
#BoxyBSD is a non-profit VM & service provider for the open-source community with a focus on BSD based Systems like #FreeBSD, #OpenBSD and #NetBSD. BoxyBSD also provides additional services like webhosting, git, email and DNS solutions for #opensource projects to give valuable things back to the community.
The FreeBSD version of TrueNAS is going away, a major Apple antitrust case begins, encrypted LLM chat responses are relatively easy to read, and scaling a fleet of FreeBSD hosts with jails.
Hello everyone! I wanted to share some exciting updates about the development of BSD Mail, our privacy-focused email service designed with robustness, security, and transparency in mind. Here’s a deep dive into the technical choices I've made, focusing on my use of open source solutions and open protocols:
🌍 Servers & Location
We're running on two physical servers:
One hosted by OVH in France
Another by Hetzner in Germany
Both servers operate on FreeBSD with NVMe drives in a ZFS mirror configuration for speed and data integrity.
🔒 Virtualization & Security
We utilize jails on both servers to ensure isolated environments for different services, managed via BastilleBSD. On one server, jails are set up directly on the hardware, whereas the other server employs nested jails.
Each server hosts a bhyve VM running OpenBSD with OpenSMTPD for handling SMTP duties securely.
🔗 Networking
A Wireguard setup connects the two servers, facilitating routing capabilities so that jails and VMs can communicate seamlessly, supporting both IPv4 and IPv6.
📧 Email Services
Dovecot is configured for maildir replication across the servers using Dovecot sync, ensuring email availability and redundancy.
Rspamd instances are tied to local KeyDB jails, set up in master-master replication for consistent and reliable spam detection and greylisting.
ClamAV runs in corresponding jails for virus scanning, maintaining a high level of security.
SOGo provides a web interface for email management, connected to MySQL databases in master-master replication to handle sessions and authentication smoothly.
💾 Data Management
Email data is stored on separate, encrypted ZFS datasets to secure emails at rest.
MySQL databases are used for storing credentials and managing sessions for SOGo, also in a master-master replication setup. Importantly, all passwords are securely hashed using bcrypt, ensuring they are salted and safe.
🔎 Monitoring & Reliability
Our DNS is managed through BunnyNet, which continuously monitors our server status. Should one server—or a specific service—become unavailable, DNS configurations are dynamically adjusted to avoid directing users to the affected IP until full service is restored.
🌐 Commitment to Open Source and Open Protocols
Every component of BSD Mail is built exclusively using open source software and open protocols. This commitment is crucial for ensuring data freedom and the reliability of the solutions we use.
This setup not only emphasizes our commitment to privacy and security but also our dedication to maintaining an open and transparent platform.
We're excited to bring you a service where your privacy, data integrity, and freedom are prioritized. Stay tuned for more updates!