Notices by Stefano Marinelli (stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe)

Why I (still) love Linux

I usually publish articles about how much I love the BSDs or illumos distributions, but today I want to talk about Linux (or, better, GNU/Linux) and why, despite everything, it still holds a place in my heart.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/11/24/why-i-still-love-linux/

#Linux #OwnYourData #Server #SysAdmin #Workstation #OpenSource #ITNotes

As expected, on some well known news sites my latest blog post also drew some interesting comments, offering a few things to think about. On average, the readers who replied see "Linux" as the opposite of macOS or Windows, basically an anti something. Not because of its strengths, but because of the flaws they associate with its "competitors". They also focus entirely on the desktop world, which I can understand.

Many of them also confuse popularity with quality. The fact that other operating systems such as the BSDs or illumos are less widespread leads them to assume they are less "interesting". That is an ideological contradiction, because by the same logic Windows and macOS would be far superior to everything else simply because they dominate an enormous share of desktop systems.

#ITNotes #OS #IT

Tonight, for some reason, this came back to my mind. Maybe because the weather feels the same as it did back then.

https://my-notes.dragas.net/2025/07/30/i-just-want-to-go-back-home/

#MyNotes #Memories #Flashback #ThrowBack

"The contrast with Docker is striking: while the Docker container required 100% CPU to reach peak for the HTTP and HTTPS throughput, the FreeBSD jail delivered the same speed with ~60% of the CPU sitting idle. In terms of performance cost per request, Jails are drastically cheaper."

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/11/19/static-web-hosting-intel-n150-freebsd-smartos-netbsd-openbsd-linux/

#ITNotes #Linux #Docker #Containers #FreeBSD #RunBSD #IT #SysAdmin

@hyc OS level containarization is a good thing, IMHO. But it shouldn't rely on pieces "attached". FreeBSD Jails and illumos Zones do this in the proper way.

I clearly wrote that the tests I performed in the latest blog post are 'with a default configuration, without optimizations'.
In many places where the link is circulating: 'You should have enabled XYZ and ZYX!'

RE: https://mastodon.social/@franco_vazza/115564794306792714

This combination is pure blasphemy.
And I totally agree with Franco.

#Food #Pizza #Tiramisu

RE: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@mms/115555742473179098

This is a great, great blog post.

Thank you, @mms

#Internet #InternetIsNotDead

Just got back home. I drove through the fog, not too bad in town, but the moment I left the city it turned into a wall of nothingness. I even struggled to find my front door, though I eventually made it inside. The key barely worked too, which is odd since it never gives me trouble.

I take off my jacket and I can't find my coat rack. Weird. Then I notice a stranger on my couch. Except that is not my couch. And this is not my living room. This guy has changed all the furniture in my house. How did he manage that in just a few hours?

Alright, terrible joke, I'll stop. Pretending I walked into the wrong house is peak dad joke...

This Isn't a Battle

After reading a post describing the FreeBSD community as 'toxic', I share a different perspective. This isn't a battle. It's a reflection on coexistence, the original Open Source spirit, and the quiet richness of taking a different path.

https://my-notes.dragas.net/2025/11/14/this-isnt-a-battle/

#MyNotes #IT #SysAdmin #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #Linux #OpenSource

Barista or Painter? Part 2

Testing the old manual method for comparison.
The result is clear: the traditional method works fine for the walls, while the spray setup is much better for the ceiling and corners.

The tech part? That small box contains a NodeMCU v3 and a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor, installed in 2018.

Today I am also a painter. But I am a Barista and a nerd every day 🙂

#DIY

Gruk, for Signal:

Error: error loading manager. Try again later or run with --relink to force relink: libsignal-service error: HTTP reqwest error: error sending request for url (https://chat.signal.org/v2/keys?identity=ACI)

In fact, it's not responding.

#Signal #aws

@h3artbl33d I know - it's not Signal, it's AWS (the clooooooud)!

Saturday Stroll

#Saturday #Relax #Autumn

Client: "I’d like to try some alternative themes for my WordPress site you’re hosting, but I’m afraid of breaking the production site."

Me: "Say no more."

I start:
- create a record for the test site

- bastille clone -l prod testing ip

- bastille console nginx → edit nginx proxy, add the new domain → certbot --nginx -d newdomain.tld

- bastille console testing → mysql → UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'https://newdomain.tld' WHERE option_name = 'siteurl';
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'https://newdomain.tld' WHERE option_name = 'home';

- "Done. You can now connect to..."

FreeBSD, jails, ZFS. No limits.

#RunBSD #FreeBSD #jails #BastilleBSD #WordPress

New BSD Cafe Service: ntfy Server at BSD Cafe

BSD Cafe now offers an ntfy server for self-hosted push notifications. Use it with Mastodon, Matrix, or any UnifiedPush-compatible service to keep your notifications private - no data passes through Google servers. Available to everyone.

https://journal.bsd.cafe/2025/10/13/new-bsd-cafe-service-ntfy-server-at-bsd-cafe/

#BSDCafe #BSDCafeServices #BSDCafeUpdates #BSDCafeAnnouncements #BSDCafeJournal

This morning, I opened some "traditional" social media, which I still follow mainly to stay up to date on local information and events. I did a personal survey: out of 50 posts I saw, 35 were clearly AI-generated (even by ordinary people), some completely inaccurate and imprecise, not to mention "fake news".
Ten were almost unreadable and incomprehensible due to the level of ignorance they showed, and five were ads. Zero were status updates from people I actually know and would be interested in reading.

I wonder how people have gotten so used to all this. But, looking around and talking to people, it seems this is their new normal, and they've become accustomed to this way of writing and thinking. Fake news has become their primary source of information.

A few days ago, I saw someone writing an email in an office. I felt a glimmer of hope when I saw them doing it by hand, but then I was saddened to see the result was almost identical to an AI's: the same structure, the same tone, the same emojis.

We've become so accustomed to these artificial creations that now, even unconsciously, we are the ones emulating them.

Another small victory today.

A salesperson had almost convinced a client to move their email from 365 to Google because "they hold all the cards now". I stepped in and suggested they keep their email on servers that they control instead. The salesperson almost mocked me, treating me like a "nerd" who doesn't understand how the world works.

I was happy to be a nerd, if necessary, to explain the pros and cons of the solution to the client.
The result? The salesperson was politely thanked and "sent home", and I'm now evaluating some details of the new mail server, which, by the client's choice, will be based on OpenBSD.

Because people need explanations, not brochures.

#OwnYourData #OpenBSD #RunBSD

Hiroki Sato is presenting USB Type-C Support on *BSD

#EuroBSDCon #ebc25 #ebc2025

Spent my morning figuring out why Nginx was dead on a server with many days of uptime. No reboot, no kernel panic. Just... down. Ubuntu 24.04.

The cause? An automatic unattended-upgrade of libc6. This prompted systemd to work its magic, wisely deciding to restart every running service to apply the patch. Fine.

The problem is, in the exact same minute, the systemd timer for certbot decided it was time to renew certificates.

The result:

- systemd stops Nginx.
- Port 80 becomes free.
- certbot, in standalone mode, immediately grabs it for validation.
- systemd tries to restart Nginx, which fails with "Address already in use".

The web server was knocked offline by its own certificate renewal script.

I swear, this is the kind of cascading failure that has never happened to me in years of running *BSD. With a classic cron job, certbot would have failed, logged an error, and tried again the next day. The web server would have remained untouched.

Sometimes, too much automation and too many interconnected parts just create more spectacular ways for things to break.

#SysAdmin #Linux #SystemD #Rant #KISS