13 If you’re an avid Linux system user like me or are working as a sysadmin for managing company networks, chances are you’ve stumbled at least once with terms like FreeBSD and BSD. So, what are these and what is their significance? In this guide, we’ll cover the differences between FreeBSD vs Linux thoroughly, and will also highlight their similarities at the same time. Overall, our objective is to enlighten our readers about the different variations of the infamous Unix systems and how they are categorized. Stay tuned throughout this guide to learn more about these legacy systems in order to choose the right one for your job.
OpenBSD has implemented a security enhancement by moving SSH agent listener sockets from /tmp to ~/.ssh/agent. This change leverages the unveil(2) mechanism to prevent processes with restricted filesystem access, such as Firefox, from accessing SSH keys. The update also introduces new ssh-agent flags for managing stale sockets and supports NFS home directories. This improvement aims to enhance SSH security for users on the OpenBSD platform.
The OpenBSD installer has been updated to prefer disks larger than 1GB as the default root disk during installation. This change aims to avoid selecting smaller or less suitable disks, such as install media or external drives, as the default option. The update modifies the disk selection process to prioritize larger disks, enhancing user convenience. This improvement is expected to streamline the installation process by reducing the need for manual adjustments.
The "Valuable News" weekly series provides summaries of news, articles, and other interesting content, primarily related to UNIX/BSD/Linux systems. The series aims to filter essential information from the vast amount of data available online, making it easier for readers to stay informed without sifting through irrelevant content. This edition highlights various updates and tutorials related to UNIX/BSD/Linux, including custom XKB layouts, FPU emulation, and FreeBSD projects.
Incus is a versatile platform that supports running BSD-based virtual machines, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. This guide explains how to use cloud images to set up these systems quickly and efficiently. The process involves downloading pre-configured cloud images, using the incus-migrate tool for migration, and launching the VMs. Incus simplifies management by treating BSD VMs similarly to containers or other VMs, making it a practical solution for testing, development, or deployment. With ready-to-use images and straightforward steps, Incus provides a reliable way to integrate BSD systems into your virtualization infrastructure.
The New York City BSD User Group (NYC*BUG) is hosting a meeting on May 14, 2025, focused on the FreeBSD Laptop and Desktop Working Group, with a DJ-BSD redux session. Charlie Li, a FreeBSD Ports committer, will lead an informal discussion on using FreeBSD for desktops and laptops, sharing insights into daily usage, development, and community involvement. The event will be held at NYU Tandon Engineering Building in Brooklyn, with remote participation via streaming and IRC for Q&A. RSVP is required for attendance.
Errata patches for the NFS server have been released for OpenBSD 7.6 and 7.7. These updates address vulnerabilities and are available for amd64, arm64, and i386 platforms via the syspatch utility. Source code patches can be found on the respective errata pages. Users are encouraged to apply these updates to ensure system security.
The NetBSD Foundation will host its 2025 Annual General Meeting on May 17 at 21:00 UTC. The event will take place in the netbsd-agm channel on irc.libera.chat, featuring presentations on technical direction, project services, and publicity, followed by a Q&A session. A full transcript will be available for those unable to attend. The meeting aims to engage the community and discuss the project's future.
This article details the process of building a secure and functional home router using OpenBSD. The author discusses the limitations of consumer routers and explores the hardware and software setup, including PPP and IPv6 configurations. The guide covers choosing compatible hardware, configuring interfaces, and establishing IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity. It also provides insights into turning a client into a router, setting up DHCP, and implementing firewall rules with pf. The author concludes with future tasks such as configuring NTP and DNS services.
The first BETA build for the FreeBSD 14.3 release cycle is now available. ISO images for the amd64, i386, powerpc, powerpc64, powerpc64le, powerpcspe, armv6, armv7, aarch64, and riscv64 architectures are FreeBSD mirror sites.
DragonFly 6.4.1, a bugfix upgrade to version 6.4, has been released and is available for download. This release focuses on addressing bugs and improving stability.
A proposed change to the OpenBSD installer aims to improve disk selection by prioritizing disks larger than 1G when multiple options are available. Currently, the installer defaults to the first detected disk (sd0), which can lead to issues if smaller USB sticks or install media are detected before the intended disk. The suggested update would reshuffle the list of valid root disks, placing smaller disks last. This change is intended to simplify the installation process without altering upgrade behavior for systems with smaller root disks and larger data disks. Feedback is being sought from the community to evaluate the proposal.
April was a busy month for HardenedBSD, with several updates and improvements. The team fixed vulnerabilities and enhanced tools like hbsdcontrol. Notably, the build cadence for OS releases will slow to once per quarter due to dependency calculation delays in FreeBSD's package manager. Collaborations with the Radicle project and a FreeBSD hackathon focused on Rust integration were also highlighted. Updates to build scripts for pkgbase support were made, with experimental repos planned for July.
Inside FreeBSD Netgraph: Behind the Curtain of Advanced Networking, Launching BSSG - My Journey from Dynamic CMS to Bash Static Site Generator, OpenZFS Cheat Sheet, Dipping my toes in OpenBSD in Amsterdam, SSH keys from a command: sshd's AuthorizedKeysCommand directive, How to move bhyve VM and Jail container from one host to another host, and more.
Martin Pieuchot has requested community testing for a diff enabling parallel execution of the upper fault handler in OpenBSD. This update aims to improve performance by allowing concurrent processing. Testers are encouraged to report back with dmesg logs to evaluate the impact on their systems. The change builds on recent commits that introduced the necessary code. Feedback is crucial for further development.
In a world of opaque software licensing and vendor lock-in, FreeBSD and ZFS offer a path to infrastructure independence. This article explores how these open-source technologies provide long-term technical stability, architectural transparency, and operational autonomy. It highlights the risks of proprietary software, the advantages of FreeBSD's permissive licensing, and ZFS's robust file system integration. Additionally, it discusses how these tools align with global data sovereignty laws and offer practical solutions for modern enterprises seeking control over their infrastructure.