Michael Dexter @dexter@bsd.network
Dexter's Law: Only proprietary software vendors want proprietary software and only fascists want fascism. Toots are my own. Self-employed. Father of three.
I aim to keep this to technical topics relating to bhyve and OpenZFS, and the occasional humor and Latvia.
Joined Apr 2018
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Dexter’s second law: The pendulum that swings twice as high lasts half as long.
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Having spent days making PkgBase easy on #FreeBSD…
The (highly opinionated) Sum Total of computer history:
0. BSD Unix
1. Macintosh
2. Packaged Base in Red Hat 5.2
3. Squiggly underline spell check
4. FreeBSD Jail to manage the fustercluck that are RPMs on Red Hat
5. Two-finger scrolling
6. Hardware-assisted virtualization
7. ZFS v28
8. NVMe
TCP/IP is taken for granted, as it is not vendor/platform-specific.
Flat screen displays are a TV crossover technology, as are WiFi, GPS, and fancy batteries.
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Call For Testing: Major #OccamBSD updates
occambsd.sh - More-consistent syntax
propagate.sh - Propagate PkgBase installs
imagine.sh - Image boot images from the others and upstream
sideload.sh - Push (much of) a #FreeBSD configuration to a new installation
rc.local.sh - Semi-idempotently configure basic aspects of a system
They’re never done, never perfect, but they do exactly what I have envisioned in various ways and given talks about for 20+ years.
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Emerging observations on how lockdown was great for #opensource:
Work from home was blessed as a valid thing
Sci-fi-like casual video conferencing without hesitation around the world is now the norm for some of us, only limited by time zones and languages.
Group video chat is equally familiar and commonplace, with excellent self-policing of audio quality and behavior.
Events are focusing on quality over quantity, complimenting the above.
Basically, the “open source seems to be where drunk guys pinch your butt while mansplaining you” factors were globally nipped in the bud.
Good work everyone!
These are delightful times!
❤️❤️❤️
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Repost: It took time, but #bhyve #hypervisor development is back to a robust pace on both #FreeBSD and #illumos with a good balance of new features and subtle refinement.
I have begun posting recordings of the weekly Jails/Zones, #OpenZFS, and bhyve Production Users calls:
https://youtube.com/@callfortesting
The running minutes documents are linked from https://callfortesting.org
Heads-up: There are many ways to participate and lots to do!
Michael Dexter
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We are incredibly grateful for the wonderful technology that BSD has given us - our organisation is build upon it - because it is stable, reliable, secure, open and has been developed by tens of thousands of people throughout the decades 🥰🫶🏻
As such, we deem it vital to give back to the community and to the BSDs. We do that through sponsoring - financially, hours, patches, feedback and more 🤓
This time we would like to highlight one of the initiatives we sponsor: @EuroBSDCon 2026. This is a fantastic conference, each year again. This edition is held in Brussels. So naturally, we will be there.
If you are interested in any way in the BSDs, either grab your ticket, come to Brussels and be part of the fun. Or grab a streaming ticket and watch the event over the internet. Rumor has it that this year will be streamed directly to PeerTube.
If you want to give it a swing, we mirror OpenBSD, HardenedBSD, hbsdfw and SecBSD from Amsterdam.
#OpenBSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD #HardenedBSD #SecBSD #EuroBSDcon #eurobsdcon2026
Michael Dexter
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Hello BRU!
Hello AMS ❤️
Michael Dexter
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The 2026 #bhyvecon during @EuroBSDCon is up:
See you there!
Michael Dexter
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We can't count to three either. We are pleased to announce that Asahi Linux is now officially available on M3 series Apple Silicon Macs!
Michael Dexter
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Game of Trees 0.128 released https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20260905172725
Michael Dexter
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The U.N. has voted to adopt a new world map as standard. They are dumping the Mercator Projection for an Equal Earth Projection, a map that shows landmasses much closer to their real size.
It makes Africa and other equatorial landmasses look larger than previously, and shrinks Europe, North America, Russia, and especially Greenland.
The only country to speak and vote against the resolution was the USA. No surprise.
The US delegate actually sat there and claimed that the UN was ignoring real problems while working on changing maps for idealogical and political reasons (ignoring the science completely). How she stopped from dissolving in a puddle of irony I'll never know. She also claimed that passing symbolic resolutions like changing maps was why the U.N. is "losing its credibility" – the puddle deepens.
Six countries—Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine—abstained from voting.
Humble AI please. Not this.
Michael Dexter
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AI models that do not clearly state what materials have been used to train them, and that there are appropriate legal rights to their usage, should be prohibited from use within the EU.
Michael Dexter
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@dexter @EuroBSDCon I see zfs!!
I was concerned that #bhyvecon would be good, but not insane, but as of a few hours ago, it will be mildly insane. Please sponsor when you register to cover venue costs and gifts via https://bsdfund.org are always appreciated.
See you in Brussels and online.
Just tinkering with a 1GB RAM/4 Core Pine64 that Ian gave me at #BSDPizza for my @EuroBSDCon talk...
Nothing out of the ordinary to see here folks. Move along. See you at #EuroBSDcon!
(No, it's not the fact that for once I did a screen shot from a desktop computer, rather than lazily make a photo from my phone.)
Michael Dexter
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the Intel ISA, formalized, as a web site:
https://intel.github.io/SDM/sdm.html
announcement:
https://intel.github.io/SDM/announcement/2026/08/20/announce-preview.html
some blog posts:
https://intellabs.github.io/isa-tools/
this is all Alastair Reid's work! he previously did similar work creating an executable formal spec for ARM's ISA
Michael Dexter
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@dexter no, you need src-sys for the kernel (sys) headers. probably src should depend on src-sys.
Naive #FreeBSD PkgBase buildworld question:
I assumed I could build world with only the FreeBSD-src package, but the build wants sys/sys/params.h
Is that all it needs and if so, should that live in the src (non-sys) package?
Michael Dexter
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The cat didn't want to go to work and is jealous of the cat that was abducted.
Michael Dexter
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Spotted that @internetarchive just listed a role for a software engineer. US remote, to $130k
Looking for 5+ years backend or devops experience
Hey #FreeBSD folks, 15.1/xorg/XFCE support sound out of the box on a ThinkPad X280 but not T480. Is there a secret (preferably not so secret) incantation to make it work?
Thx.
Dexter's Law: Only proprietary software vendors want proprietary software and only fascists want fascism. Toots are my own. Self-employed. Father of three.
I aim to keep this to technical topics relating to bhyve and OpenZFS, and the occasional humor and Latvia.
Joined Apr 2018
