🗳️ 2025 FreeBSD Community Survey – Insights Are In

Thank you to everyone who took the time to share feedback in this year’s survey. Your input helps shape where FreeBSD is heading and how we prioritize our work.

📖 Read the full report here: https://freebsdfoundation.org/insights-from-the-2025-freebsd-community-survey/

#FreeBSD #CommunitySurvey #OpenSource #ContributorExperience #FreeBSDFoundation

Decentralisation is the biggest enemy of authoritarianism. So #SelfHost. Buy solar and batteries. Heat pumps. Get an electric car. Electric bicycles. Use #OpenSource and #FreeSoftware. Store your data at home. Get a Canon Selphy to print the pictures you take. Buy books. Vinyl or CDs. Join your local library. Do. Don’t discuss. And help your neighbours to do the same things. Sharing is caring. Avoid getting lost in discussions about what’s best. Do. Fail. Share. Learn. Repeat.

Show me the Pull Requests.

I keep hearing #AI boosters / talking heads claiming that #LLMs have transformed software development, "it's not just about prototyping - AI is writing solid production code", etc.

So here's a challenge:

Share some AI-derived pull requests that deal with non-obvious corner cases or non-trivial bugs from mature #opensource projects. I'll also accept high-quality documentation that isn't just the sort of wasted space & slop that I always tell juniors not to write.

What is ProxLB?
The Prox Load Balancer (ProxLB) helps you to rebalance your Container and VM workloads across your nodes in your Proxmox cluster based on the resource usage of nodes (e.g., CPU, memory, local disk).

Changelog:
* Add conntrack state aware migrations of VMs. (Closes: 305)
* Add graceful shutdown for SIGINT command. (Closes: 304)
* Fix crash when validating absent migration job ids. (Closes: 308)
* Fix guest object names are not being evaluated in debug log. (Closes: 310)
* Note: Have a great Dutch Proxmox Day 2025!

ProxLB is fully #opensource and under #GPL (#GPLv3).

Changelog: https://github.com/gyptazy/ProxLB/releases/tag/v1.1.7
Project: https://proxlb.de

#ProxLB #Proxmox #Virtualization #Loadbalancer #OpenSource #Python #Coding #DutchProxmoxDay #DutchProxmoxDay2025 #PVE #Proxcon #Proxday #KVM

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ProxLB as a DRS alike Loadbalancer for Proxmox Clusters

What advice would you give to someone starting out with FreeBSD?

-Must-have software or tools
-Tips for customizing the environment
-Best practices for security and stability

Whether you’re a developer, or a long-time user, your insights can help new users feel more confident and supported. Share your tips below and help welcome the next wave of FreeBSD contributors.

Learn more:
FreeBSD Handbook: https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/
Join the FreeBSD Discord: https://discord.gg/freebsd

#FreeBSD #OpenSource

GNOME 49 released

https://r1os.com/sites/news/gnome-49-released.php

#gnome #gnome49 #linuxdesktop #wayland #linux #bsd #freesoftware #opensource

What would you think about a new API endpoint that lets you run unattended upgrades with a simple call like:

/nodes/{node_name}/apt/upgrade

#Linux #OpenSource #PatchManagement #Security #DevOps #Automation #Ansible #PVE #PVE8 #PVE9

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A Proxmox Node running apt-get -y dist-upgrade command via API in a non interactive and unattended way by a patched and extended API from gyptazy

Guten Morgen - Tässle Kaffee ☕️?

Gerade beeindruckt von #Österreich 🇦🇹🇪🇺: „#Microsoft raus, #OpenSource rein - so lautet die Devise beim Österreichischen #Bundesheer. Statt auf die bekannten Office-Programme aus Redmond, #USA will es in Zukunft mit dem frei verfügbaren, quelloffenen #LibreOffice arbeiten.“ https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20250916/807304/Freie-Software-fuer-das-Bundesheer

The whole iOS 26 discourse is interesting as very few people seem to realize that the problem is that they "bought" devices that they don't own.

#apple owns it.

Computing doesn't have to be this way.

#opensource

@ed is moving on from @osi to focus on the next stages of AI.

https://opensource.org/blog/osi-next-phase-executive-director-search

#OpenSource

Hey @protonprivacy it would be nice if you could update your website. Given that both of us fight for #privacy and #opensource, we must not use the same marketing tactics like Big Techs do.

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Screenshot from Proton website, highlighted text: All Proton apps are open source Question to Lumo with a more a honest answer: Are all Proton apps open source? Please answer in one sentence. Not all Proton apps are open source—while many core services like Proton Mail and Proton VPN have open-source components, some Proton applications remain proprietary.

☝☝☝☝☝
You only have a few more hours to nominate your favourite #OpenSource people and projects.

Nominate your favourite UK-based #OpenSource heroes at https://openuk.uk/awards/

This isn't pay-to-win. We don't charge for nominations and the award ceremony is also free (and very swanky!).

Please - show your support for your favourite people, projects, and platforms.

Nominations close on the 14th of September.
https://openuk.uk/awards/

#OpenData #OpenHardware #UK #FOSS

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OpenlK 6th Annual Awards, 2025 Nominations close on 14 September

Our friends at Karios recently shared why they chose FreeBSD as the foundation of their hardened operating system.

This is another great example of how companies are leveraging FreeBSD to build secure, production-grade infrastructure.

Curious how other organizations are using FreeBSD? Explore our collection of end-user stories to see real-world use cases and learn how FreeBSD is making an impact across industries:

https://freebsdfoundation.org/end-user-stories/

#FreeBSD #OpenSource #Security #Infra

I appreciate the assholes & bigots outting themselves in the replies. These blocks will really help clean up my notifications in the future. #OpenSource

"The Apache Software Foundation announced last year that they would be changing its corporate logo and overhaul its branding after being criticized by American Indian activists. Today they announced the brand new Apache Software Foundation branding."

https://www.phoronix.com/news/New-Apache-Software-Logo

#OpenSource

FreeBSD Foundation Q2 2025 Status Update is now available!

Discover how your support helps power the Project forward: from laptop usability and infrastructure modernization to performance enhancements, security advancements, and advocacy efforts.

Thank you for your continued support. Stay updated and see where your contributions are making a real impact.

Read the full Q2 update here:
https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/freebsd-foundation-q2-2025-status-update/

#FreeBSD #FoundationUpdate #OpenSource #CommunityDriven #TechProgress

Featuring:
* EVPN configuration for SDNs between clusters
* Search functionality got improved (see screenshot)
* Metrics are gathered in a more efficient way
* Privilege Management for users from the UI

#Proxmox #PVE #OpenSource #Virtualization #vcenter

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Proxmox Datacenter Manager Beta 0.9.0

As it happens, we still use CVS in our operating system project (there are reasons for doing this, but migration to git would indeed make sense).

While working on our project, we occasionally have to do a full checkout of the whole codebase, which is several gigabytes. Over time, this operation has gotten very, very, very slow - I mean "2+ hours to perform a checkout" slow.

This was getting quite ridiculous. Even though it's CVS, it shouldn't crawl like this. A quick build of CVS with debug symbols and sampling the "cvs server" process with Linux perf showed something peculiar: The code was spending the majority of the time inside one function.

So what is this get_memnode() function? Turns out this is a support function from Gnulib that enables page-aligned memory allocations. (NOTE: I have no clue why CVS thinks doing page-aligned allocations is beneficial here - but here we are.)

The code in question has support for three different backend allocators:
1. mmap
2. posix_memalign
3. malloc

Sounds nice, except that both 1 and 3 use a linked list to track the allocations. The get_memnode() function is called when deallocating memory to find out the original pointer to pass to the backend deallocation function: The node search code appears as:

for (c = *p_next; c != NULL; p_next = &c->next, c = c->next)
if (c->aligned_ptr == aligned_ptr)
break;

The get_memnode() function is called from pagealign_free():

#if HAVE_MMAP
if (munmap (aligned_ptr, get_memnode (aligned_ptr)) < 0)
error (EXIT_FAILURE, errno, "Failed to unmap memory");
#elif HAVE_POSIX_MEMALIGN
free (aligned_ptr);
#else
free (get_memnode (aligned_ptr));
#endif

This is an O(n) operation. CVS must be allocating a huge number of small allocations, which will result in it spending most of the CPU time in get_memnode() trying to find the node to remove from the list.

Why should we care? This is "just CVS" after all. Well, Gnulib is used in a lot of projects, not just CVS. While pagealign_alloc() is likely not the most used functionality, it can still end up hurting performance in many places.

The obvious easy fix is to prefer the posix_memalign method over the other options (I quickly made this happen for my personal CVS build by adding tactical #undef HAVE_MMAP). Even better, the list code should be replaced with something more sensible. In fact, there is no need to store the original pointer in a list; a better solution is to allocate enough memory and store the pointer before the calculated aligned pointer. This way, the original pointer can be fetched from the negative offset of the pointer passed to pagealign_free(). This way, it will be O(1).

I tried to report this to the Gnulib project, but I have trouble reaching gnu.org services currently. I'll be sure to do that once things recover.

#opensource #development #bugstories

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perf report revealing ton of CPU time spent in get_memnode() traversing a linked list.

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get_memnode function code using linear list search, which is O(n).

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pagealign_free() function calling get_memnode() for other than HAVE_POSIX_MEMALIGN code paths.

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cvs process pegged to 100% CPU time.

The latest in my blog series on practical applications of the five Buddhist precepts to my work in open source leadership - this time, the second precept of not taking the not given / cultivating open handed generosity.

https://ruthcheesley.co.uk/blog/buddhism/cultivating-true-value-beyond-takers-v-makers-in-open-source

#Precepts #Triratna #Buddhism #OpenSource #Generosity

We’ve added fresh gear to help you show your support for FreeBSD:

-Foam Trucker Hat (Embroidery)
-Mouse Pad (Rectangle)
-Spiral Notebook
-Accent Coffee Mug

Every purchase supports the FreeBSD Foundation’s mission, funding development, advocacy, and community initiatives that keep FreeBSD strong.

Take a look at the new arrivals here:
👉 https://freebsd-foundation.myshopify.com/

#FreeBSD #OpenSource #Community #SupportFreeBSD

We have some new LibreOffice Expert magazines from @linuxmagazine to give away! We want to get them to schools, libraries and local communities, especially in remote places where internet access isn't easily available: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/09/09/new-libreoffice-expert-2025-2026-magazines-available-for-schools-and-local-communities/ #foss #OpenSource

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Magazine covers

I'm writing this post here today in hopes to bring some attention to something that is near and dear to my heart, and that's an update to the current situation with Nova Launcher, that I worked for and with for nine years up until August of 2024.

For those that haven't seen the news, Kevin Barry, the founder and developer of Nova has left Branch which in turn means he's now no longer involved with Nova Launcher in any way going forward.

https://teslacoilapps.com/nova/solong.html

For the past year or so Kevin has stated that he was working on the open source version of Nova Launcher so that if/when this time came, it would be out in the open and the community could take it over and contribute to it and have it continue being developed.

However, it seems that Harish Thimmappa and others at Branch had told him to stop working on that effort as they didn't want him to continue doing that for unknown reasons. This is sad news because this was something that former CEO, Alex Austin, had promised both via a contract and publicly that if Kevin were to ever leave Branch, Nova Launcher would become open source. You can find that quote here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/w2q6al/comment/igzoniu/

and another very similar quote with similar conversation here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/w2q6al/comment/ih25ntz/

The reason for this post is to try and draw some attention to the folks at Branch, specifically folks like Harish Thimmappa to do the right thing and honor these promises and any writings in the contracts from 2022 and to fully focus on releasing Nova Launcher as an open source app.

The community deserves this more than anything, since that was something that Kevin was very adamant about when he allowed Branch to acquire Nova Launcher back in 2022. Plus, this is just something that Branch should do since it is something that has been promised.

There is currently a petition on Change.org to try and get Branch to do this as well. After only 3 days of it being posted to Change.org, it sits at almost 1,500 signatures, and that's with very little to no press coverage at this time, which is something that would be super useful to bring full attention to this situation. You can find the petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/make-nova-launcher-open-source-let-the-community-continue-its-development

I ask that everyone who sees this post can share it with their followers as I would love to see Branch do the right thing and follow through with their promises that were made back in 2022 when they acquired Nova Launcher and release it fully as an open source app now that Kevin is no longer working for Branch and not involved in Nova Launcher.

I'm going to tag some folks below that I worked with at Branch in hopes of getting this post seen by as many folks there as possible.

#NovaLauncher #Nova #Branch #BranchMetrics #OpenSource #OpenSourceNova #Petition #Android #Apps #Google

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A banner image for the Android app Nova Launcher.

#devops #virtualization #python #python3 #coding #tools #pve #prox #proxlb #drs #clustering #loadbalancing #features

GitHub: https://github.com/gyptazy/ProxLB