A funny thing happened today: after a meeting I ended up on the phone with a former colleague and we drifted into the ongoing “is it really jails?” naming discussion around my NetBSD experiment.

He pointed me to the FreeBSD Handbook and suggested I look again at how jails are actually described there. That sent me down a small rabbit hole. The more I read, the less clear-cut the distinction felt.

At the lowest level, FreeBSD jails are essentially a kernel mechanism that attaches an identity to processes and restricts visibility and interaction. Many things people associate with “modern jails” today - VNET networking, ZFS-based setups, orchestration frameworks - often live a layer above that core mechanism in tools like BastilleBSD and similar projects.

Interestingly, FreeBSD’s own docs sometimes describe jails as the subsystem that enables containers, and the industry term “container” shows up quite regularly there as well. FreeBSD can even run OCI containers via the Linux compatibility layer. Which made me wonder: have “jails” gradually become something like a brand name for the FreeBSD flavor of containers in people’s minds?

I’m honestly still undecided. The more I read, the more it feels like the answer depends a lot on the perspective and background one brings to these terms.

Curious what the poll will say — please vote if you haven’t yet. And if the right name isn’t listed, feel free to drop suggestions in the comments 🙂

#netbsd #freebsd #openbsd #dragonfly

@scrottie @elena @discoverbsd @bsdcan I am using a FreeBSD laptop if that matters. bsdcan.org is a great meet up just for the people!
We do have a lot of BSD chatter on the various hashtags #FreeBSD #BSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD

BSDCan: North America’s largest BSD conference is open for registration!

Tutorials: June 17-18, 2026
Conference: June 19-20, 2026

Full list of talks here:
https://blog.bsdcan.org/blog/

Register before May 1 and the closing reception is free!

https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/registration.html

#bsdcan #conference #bsd #unix #development #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #sysadmin #devops

I’ve been following the discussions about the name of my NetBSD project ("Jails for NetBSD") across a few platforms over the past days and really appreciate the thoughtful feedback.

The short version: the current prototype is probably closer to a cage than a strict jail, so the name might indeed not be perfect. The project originally started as an experiment inspired by FreeBSD jails, but while exploring NetBSD internals it evolved into something slightly different: controlled process isolation built around the secmodel framework, with resource limits and network virtualization *out of scope*.

Because of that, I’m open to renaming the project at this stage.

I’ve attached a small poll with a few candidate names — please vote if you like.
And if the right name isn’t listed yet, feel free to drop suggestions in the comments 🙂

Project site: https://netbsd-jails.petermann-digital.de/

#netbsd #jails #freebsd #openbsd

The March 3rd, 2026 Jail/Zones Production User Call:

https://youtu.be/3yHGSoaWIZ0

We discussed the new #NetBSD Jail feature, new VLAN support in the #FreeBSD software bridge, sudo alternatives, a Sylve Jail deep-dive, and more!

"Don't forget to slam those Like and Subscribe buttons."

You can support all Call For Testing efforts via BSD Fund: https://bsdfund.org

Submit The #eurobsdcon 2026 Call for Papers by June 20th, come to Brussels September 9-13 and mingle with #BSD people!

https://2026.eurobsdcon.org/cfp/

We also offer pre-submission guidance/mentoring, see within.

Wonder what BSD and the conferences are about? See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html

@EuroBSDCon #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #freesoftware #libresoftware #brussels #bruxelles

"which of the following can be used to download music: limewire, microsoft bob, adobe flash?"

#netbsd #ageverification

"you need to contact a friend. you do not have access to any electronic device except a payphone and only know their name. how do you find out their phone number?"

"which regular household object can be used to rewind a cassette tape?"

#netbsd #ageverification

verifying users of our text based operating system are over 18 by asking them questions about saddam hussein and invader zim #netbsd

Dear friends of #BSDCafe - the BSD Cafe Journal needs some attention.

This isn't the best time for me to revive it myself, and that's exactly why I'm counting on you!

I'm sure you have great ideas, thoughts, projects, and articles that would fit perfectly in that space.

So don’t be shy 🙂
The BSD Cafe Journal is waiting for you!

#BSDCafeJournal #Blogging #RunBSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #DragonFlyBSD

Jails for NetBSD – Kernel Enforced Isolation and Native Resource Control

https://netbsd-jails.petermann-digital.de/

#HackerNews #NetBSD #Jails #Kernel #Isolation #Resource #Control #Technology

Another 2nd chance to tell legislators that the mechanisms that we have inherited from #Unix, and used in loads of #FreeSoftware operating systems from #NetBSD to #Tribblix, do not have date of birth/age fields for user accounts, is #Illinois, where HB5511 is the very same text as #California's, too.

https://my.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?DocTypeID=HB&DocNum=5511&GAID=18&LegID=167486

It really does seem at this point that this is model legislation.

Sponsors in Illionois are Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, Margaret Croke, Janet Yang, Rohr, Kimberly Du Buclet, Natalie A. Manley, Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, Rick Ryan, Michelle Mussman, Martha Deuter and Tracy Katz Muhl.

The bill is in the judiciary–civil committee as of yesterday.

It was introduced last month, 1 day after it was introduced in Colorado. I wonder in what other states it has just turned up.

A lobby organization handing pre-drafted bills to multiple sets of legislators is not unknown.

@nileane @RunxiYu
#CaliforniaLaw #USLaw #IllinoisLaw #FreeSoftware #AgeVerification

New checkpoint of the NetBSD jails prototype. Clean rebase on NetBSD 11 with no changes to existing upstream code except a bugfix. Also a new evaluation ISO based on NetBSD 11 RC1 (2026-03-05). Next experiments will explore non-user rlimits in the jail context and additional kauth gates (e.g. maxproc at fork).

https://netbsd-jails.petermann-digital.de

#netbsd

yay netbsd 11 may come out rfsn. i do not think there are any open issues at this point.
<openssl> O RLY
<openssh> [noted]
<heimdal> hahaha
<bind> don't forget us!
<xorg> sing, sing a song

#netbsd @netbsd

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-supreme-court-declines-hear-dispute-over-copyrights-ai-generated-material-2026-03-02/

#FreeBSD #DragonflyBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #runbsd #linux

I'm curious to know how #bsd oses, #FreeBSD, #OpenBsd, #NetBsd, #dragonflybsd will manage the new infamous and notorious #California #ageverification #law
@stefano can you please help me solving this question? Thanks in advance

PSA

To whomever this may concern and to get you a break from the international news:

Your daily driver Windows computer is not obsolete after October 13th 2026. And above all it is NOT E-waste.

Your Apple computer is not E-waste if Tim Cook says so.

Chances are that even the beige DELL tower from 2003, which is currently holding the barn door open, is not obsolete.

And if you have an old/broken computer: please sell or donate it. If nothing else, someone can learn to solder working on it.

Contact your local IT nerd for further questions. The one with an Atari or Amiga T-shirt. Someone you know will know one.

You can also contact IT nerds here in the fediverse. Almost all of us are here.

#RightToRepair #AlternativeOperatingSystems #OperatingSystems #OS #OpenBSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD #Linux #HaikuOS #Windows #Apple #PowerPC #BeOS #Ubuntu #LinuxMint #Vic20 #Commodore64 #Amiga #ComputerClubs #Learning #OldComputersAreNotE_Waste #PCB #VintageComputing #RetroComputing #Refurbishers

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟯/𝟬𝟮 (Valuable News - 2026/03/02) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/03/02/valuable-news-2026-03-02/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟯/𝟬𝟮 (Valuable News - 2026/03/02) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/03/02/valuable-news-2026-03-02/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

@sylvie wow, this looks great! Guess I'm not the only one who thinks this is a good idea :)

#ALpineLinux and #NetBSD are the only OSes that keep my very old machines (turning 20 years old this year!) still running.

Enjoy!

@reallyflygreg @toddalio

I'm inclined to believe that it is indeed the people who don't understand technology (specifically: they think that everything works like their smart 'phone or Microsoft Windows 11 PC do) making policy; or that they did understand the technology and were just crap at drafting legislation such that it could distinguish the Microsoft Store, Google Play, the Apple App Store, et al. from #Ubuntu's package repository and #OpenBSD's ports tree.

And that distinguishing criterion is not #FreeSoftware. Given the aims, the #California legislators would want #FDroid to be required to hand over #AgeVerification data to free-software apps that F-Droid allows, that themselves want to impose age restrictions (on, say, showing certain content to minors) via the route of getting the account holder's age (bracket) information from the operating system via a 'signal' from the 'store'.

https://monitor.f-droid.org/anti-features

#FreeBSD #NetBSD #Debian #CaliforniaLaw #USLaw

@AnachronistJohn

What I have here is AMD & i3 mobile processors on MiniPC. The ram is good I have 40 GB but alas the wrong CPUs

I'm interested in the images though. I'll DM you

#BSD #netBSD

Does anyone here have an Intel N100 / N150 / N200 or similar system on which they’d be willing to run a multi-hour benchmark?

These kinds of systems are touted as being cheap and performant enough, so I’m curious, but most benchmarks are too synthetic.

I have a nice, simple bootable image that’ll compile all of NetBSD as a benchmark. All you need is 32 gigs of memory, or for whatever disk you use to be a little faster than a USB stick.

#BSD #NetBSD

I foresee:

1. #Debian eventually following #MidnightBSD's lead and cutting #California off from #FreeSoftware; after lengthy mailing list discussions where at least one person tries to deny with convoluted nonsense the plain reading of the statute.

1. A storm when someone points out that the #MobaXTerm version of APT isn't exempt, nor is RPM. (Goodness knows what IBM is going to do.)

1. An even bigger storm when someone adds an 'age' field to systemd's JSON User Records, to be enforced and served out over Desktop Bus via a systemd-aged service or some such. Much fun if that someone comes from a #GDPR country.

1. Some nutter taking a Linux distribution to court because it doesn't enable developers to control whether 16-year-olds can install rustc and busybox.

#CaliforniaLaw #Unix #rust #USLaw #AgeVerification #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD

#CaliforniaLaw is written by people who are either very ignorant or very incompetent.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043

They have assumed that all operating systems are like Microsoft Windows 11, Android, or iOS; and have written legislation for operating systems where people download glorified WWW client 'apps', from 'stores', which use 'accounts' that they have with vendors or Microsoft/Google/Apple.

But the legislation *as worded* *also* covers everything from #Debian and #Ubuntu through #Arch Linux and #MobaXTerm to #FreeBSD and #NetBSD and #OpenBSD; where users anonymously use package managers or ports systems to install applications, written by developers, on operating systems, from 'publicly available internet website' repositories.

There is no age field in the GECOS data in master.passwd(5) of course, and the reality is that no BSD or Linux-based operating system has this concept of apps/stores/accounts.

#MidnightBSD #FreeSoftware #Unix #California #USLaw #AgeVerification #GDPR

Aww, the new SSD in the #VisionFive2 doesn't work under #NetBSD. nhudson calls it "the remaining gnarly bug" 😢

The #eurobsdcon 2026 Call for Papers is open!

https://2026.eurobsdcon.org/cfp/

Submit by June 20th, come to Brussels September 9-13 and mingle with #BSD people!

We also offer pre-submission guidance/mentoring, see within.

Wonder what BSD and the conferences are about? See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html

@EuroBSDCon #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #freesoftware #libresoftware #brussels #bruxelles

The #eurobsdcon call for papers is on!

https://2026.eurobsdcon.org/cfp/

We offer pre-submission mentoring, see within!

@EuroBSDCon #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #freesoftware #libresoftware #brussels #bruxelles

I've said somewhere I want to run NetBSD on a #286. Now obviously that's not actually possible, but I should be able to do the next best thing - run it on a 286 upgraded to a 486SLC!

But wait, most 286es only support 4MB RAM, although the ol' chum of a chip supports a whopping 16MB. So I have to find a motherboard that can do this.

Thing is, I already have one. See picture. But it's currently occupied doing very important Enterprisy stuff - it runs IBM OS/2 1.3 Extended Edition..but at least I know what I need!

Alt...

otherboard with a soldered 20MHz 286 CPU and a Citygate chipset.

Back in 2022, surrounded by colleagues who were infused with "open source scepticism", I wrote "Open Source in Enterprise Environments - Where Are We Now and What Is Our Way Forward?" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/opensource_enterprise_notes.html as an explainer.

Hopefully a useful thing for others too, with links therein #freesofware #opensource #enterprise #openbsd #freebsd #netbsd #linux

Conferences - #asiabsdcon is only a couple of weeks away, the call for papers for #eurobsdcon starts tomorrow, and #BSDCan is on for June.

Read more via "What is BSD? Come to a conference to find out!" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html #openbsd #netbsd #freebsd #freesoftware #development #networking #security

For anybody wondering why I prefer #NetBSD over #Linux, compare the code for a small tool like whois(1):

NetBSD:
https://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/usr.bin/whois/whois.c?annotate=HEAD

372 lines, easy to read

Linux:
https://github.com/rfc1036/whois/blob/next/whois.c

1617 lines in the main program; unchecked malloc(3), misc buffer overflow opportunities, magic numbers, "/* This function has multiple memory leaks.*/", mixed spaces and tabs, another 2K of glue code, ...

KISS, man, KISS.

Jails for NetBSD

FreeBSD has its jails technology, and it seems NetBSD might be getting something similar soon.

Jails for NetBSD aims to bring lightweight, kernel-enforced isolation to NetBSD.

[...]

The system is intended to remain fully NetBSD-native. Isolation and policy enforcement are integrated into the kernel’s security framework rather than implemented in a separate runtime layer.

It does not aim to

https://www.osnews.com/story/144499/jails-for-netbsd/

#NetBSD

This article talks about an "age verification" law. Which it's titled as such, but it's more of a "mandatory parental control law" impacting all operating systems on PC's, mobile devices and general-computing-devices in California.

Reading the law's text it seems to require the OS to store a primary user's date of birth, and provide an API for finding out which age range band the user falls in. (<13 | <16 | <18)

Applications are required to query the API at first run, and behave accordingly.

It doesn't seem to mandate any VERIFICATION of the birthdate itself.

It seems to be an open question how #FLOSS operating systems and apps would abide by this.

#linux #bsd #freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #haiku #haikuos

https://www.alstonprivacy.com/california-enacts-digital-age-verification-law

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043

I see I have to pick up a few technical books at #BSDCan www.bsdcan.org
I have an outdated version of pf I have to update, and I really should pick up @mwl book on ZFS

#FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #DragonflyBSD #BSD

#NetBSD 🚩: for when you need your OS to run on anything, including prism power!

#Linux #unix #runbsd

Since the last article, the secmodel_jail / jailctl / jailmgr stack has moved closer to a coherent whole. The original guardrails remain unchanged: no modifications to existing kernel paths, no UVM hooks, no NPF integration, no hidden coupling. The scope stays explicit and the risk bounded.

Progress has focused on operations. Logging, lightweight supervision, and basic metrics are in place, shifting the question from "can this work?" to "can this be run?". Networking remains intentionally simple and host-based; for hard isolation, Xen is still the right boundary. Jails provide an operational frame inside the host, not a replacement for virtualization.

Resource budgeting is being prototyped again via the secmodel evaluation interface, touching allocation paths and scheduler run queues in a minimally invasive way, but it needs careful review.

There is now also a small landing page to make the ideas visible, including an experimental amd64 ISO based on NetBSD 10.1 for testing. If it sparks upstream interest or discussion around lightweight, explicit isolation on NetBSD, that is already a win.

https://netbsd-jails.petermann-digital.de/

#netbsd