it-notes-dragas-net

The presentation advocates for BSD operating systems in 2025, highlighting their security, stability, and freedom from mainstream monoculture. It describes FreeBSD's performance, OpenBSD's security focus, and NetBSD's portability as advantages over Linux-based solutions.

The author has launched BSSG, a Bash Static Site Generator developed over 10 years after transitioning from dynamic CMS platforms. BSSG generates static websites with high accessibility scores, supports Markdown, and includes over 50 CSS themes. The tool is now publicly available under a BSD license.

This tutorial explains how to set up a personal blog using NetBSD on a low-cost 1 euro/month VPS. It covers installing NetBSD, configuring the static site generator BSSG, and deploying the blog with different web servers including NetBSD's built-in httpd, nginx, and Caddy. Performance benchmarks show nginx and Caddy delivering significantly better results than the basic httpd solution.

An IT professional installed a centralized server system for a family business to address financial mismanagement, but faced opposition from an insider who tried to destroy the server. Despite external backups preserving data, the owners ultimately yielded to pressure and the system was sabotaged. The professional declined a lucrative job offer, recognizing the situation was too corrupt to fix.

During a healthcare facility maintenance, GlusterFS unexpectedly overwrote data on a failing disk and its replica with zeros, causing critical data loss. The author restored from slow USB backups while facing accusations from a competing company that accessed systems against instructions, revealing political maneuvering to replace IT support.

A developer used an AI assistant to quickly produce code that passed initial tests but contained a critical SQL injection vulnerability. This illustrates the risks of "vibe coding," where developers rely on AI tools without understanding the underlying code structure. The author warns this trend could lead to loss of programming skills and dependence on AI providers.

The article explains how to install FreeBSD on hosting providers that don't support it using mfsBSD, a bootable memory-based FreeBSD image. It describes booting into Linux rescue mode, writing the mfsBSD image to disk, then using bsdinstall to perform a full FreeBSD installation.

The article stresses that backup planning should start with strategy before implementation. It covers key considerations like risk assessment, full disk versus file-level backups, and the importance of snapshots for data consistency. The author advocates for a pull-based architecture with external storage.

A new article titled "WordPress on FreeBSD with BastilleBSD: A Secure Alternative to Linux/Docker" has been published on BSD Cafe Journal. The article explores creating a secure WordPress installation using FreeBSD jails through BastilleBSD as an alternative to Linux and Docker stacks.

This article details configuring a FreeBSD backup server with ZFS, encryption using GELI or ZFS native encryption, and tools like BastilleBSD for jails and vm-bhyve for VMs. It covers backup strategies for different systems including zfs-autobackup for FreeBSD servers and BorgBackup for non-ZFS systems, emphasizing security through isolation and encryption.

The illumos Cafe is a new community project offering Fediverse services like Mastodon and snac running on illumos-based operating systems. Modeled after the BSD Cafe, it aims to promote OS diversity and provide independent, positive community spaces.

Benchmark tests on Intel N150 and i7-7500U hardware compared FreeBSD and SmartOS virtualization technologies. Results showed bhyve hypervisor on FreeBSD achieved near-native performance with less than 1% overhead on mature hardware, while SmartOS Zones demonstrated excellent container performance with Linux LX zones outperforming bare-metal FreeBSD in memory tests.

A public institution successfully migrated from an outdated Exchange server to an open-source mail solution, saving significant costs. However, their service provider allegedly read client emails and used hidden contract clauses to prevent other agencies from leaving. The provider extended contracts and increased fees through unilateral amendments.

The article explains how to self-host Mastodon media storage using SeaweedFS, a distributed storage system. It provides step-by-step instructions for setting up SeaweedFS in a FreeBSD jail, configuring S3-compatible buckets, and integrating it with Mastodon through Nginx reverse proxy.

The article compares static web hosting performance across multiple operating systems on an Intel N150 mini PC. For plain HTTP, all tested systems delivered similar performance around 64k requests per second. HTTPS performance showed more variation, with FreeBSD, Debian, and Alpine Linux achieving higher throughput while using less CPU compared to NetBSD, OpenBSD, and SmartOS.

The author reflects on their 30-year relationship with Linux, starting from 1996 when it introduced them to Unix systems and a sense of freedom. While noting that Linux has evolved away from some Unix principles, they appreciate its widespread success and how it enabled affordable computing and learning.

This guide provides detailed instructions for installing Void Linux on a ZFS filesystem with hibernation support. It covers disk partitioning, ZFS pool creation with encryption, setting up a separate encrypted swap partition for hibernation, and configuring ZFSBootMenu for boot management. The process includes both command-line setup and optional desktop environment installation.

The article describes how to set up a Time Machine backup server using Samba inside a FreeBSD jail. It explains creating a jail with BastilleBSD, configuring ZFS datasets for storage, setting up Samba with Time Machine support, and enabling Avahi for network discovery. The guide provides step-by-step instructions for macOS users to backup to a FreeBSD server.

The author discovered FreeBSD in 2002 after using Linux, finding its comprehensive documentation and system stability impressive. They experienced better performance and reliability than Linux, particularly for servers and serious workloads. FreeBSD's philosophy of evolution over revolution and its dedicated community have maintained their engagement for decades.

A technical consultant describes multiple frustrating encounters with AI systems replacing human support. These include a digital marketplace demanding HTTP/2 be disabled, a partner unable to provide IP information for firewall whitelisting, and a marketing AI recommending inadequate server resources despite ample capacity.