I've been reading an interesting article by Liguo Yu et. al., "Maintainability of the kernels of open-source operating systems: A comparison of Linux with FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD" (DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2005.08.014). Keep in mind, the article is from 2005 (published in 2006), so it would be interesting to know how things have changed since then. We are talking here about #Linux 2,4,20, #FreeBSD 5.1, #NetBSD 1.6 and #OpenBSD 3.3.
The article basically explores maintainability of said OSes judging mainly by usage of global variables.
Here's some interesting takeouts.
"Unsafe definition" is in their terms a usage of global variables between kernel modules and non-kernel modules.

Alt...

Two graphs showing number of global variables and unsafe definitions in Linux and three BSDs. Linux has significantly more of both.

Post-Quantum Cryptography on NetBSD https://lobste.rs/s/j03wkv #netbsd
https://www.netmeister.org/blog/netbsd-pqc.html

@jschauma published a nice little primer on post quantum cryptography on #NetBSD :

https://www.netmeister.org/blog/netbsd-pqc.html

oh also has any #NetBSD user worked on a port to the RK3506G2? if not i have one sitting idle and damb it's cute
https://wiki.luckfox.com/Luckfox-Lyra

I put together some notes on using post-quantum cryptography on NetBSD using Open Quantum Safe as well as using BoringSSL. It's really simple, but instructions aren't always easy to find, so here you go:

https://www.netmeister.org/blog/netbsd-pqc.html

#NetBSD #pqc

@darrenmoffat #illumos does not yet (https://www.illumos.org/issues/5386) so it doesn't even build. The issues I've heard about from #NetBSD land are problems running inside xterm and reverse characters not working anymore.

I use tmux too, this is just about providing a version of screen for my users who still wish to use it.

Yet to hear anything positive about GNU screen 5.x.

Drops support for #Solaris / #illumos (now has a hard requirement on openpty()), and breaks various use-cases on #NetBSD.

Switching all my builds back over to misc/screen4.

#pkgsrc

Congratulations to #DragonFlyBSD from #NetBSD community for 6.4.1 release!🎉 #RunBSD
https://www.dragonflybsd.org/release64/

@jfparis @stefano A full ./build.sh -D ../dest-evbarm -O ../obj-evbarm -T ../tools -R ../sets -m evbarm -a earmv6hf -x tools distribution sets takes about 4 days and 22 hours at 1 GHz on a microSD card.

The same takes 12.25 minutes on a Ryzen 7900, less time than it takes to run install=/ on the Pi Zero (17.25 minutes) :P

I just had to know!

#NetBSD

Make Your Own Internet Presence with #NetBSD and a 1 euro VPS – Part 1: Your Blog - IT Notes

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/04/22/make-your-own-internet-presence-with-netbsd-and-a-1-euro-vps-part-1-your-blog/

Congratulations 🎉 to #OpenBSD team from #NetBSD community for 7.7

Don't tell me you still don't have a boxyBSD VM. Request one while they lasr

Here's the status of the hypervisors running boxyBSD VMs

.🖋️ #bash #freeBSD #boxyBSD #sh #zsh #ksh #csh  #netBSD #openBSD #POSIX

i486SX_soft_FPU: Bring back FPU emulation for i486SX CPU on NetBSD via @jmmv https://lobste.rs/s/lllomq #netbsd
https://github.com/mezantrop/i486SX_soft_FPU

This retro-computing project restores support for x87 floating-point unit (FPU) emulation in the NetBSD kernel, targeting legacy 486SX-class processors without hardware FPUs https://github.com/mezantrop/i486SX_soft_FPU?tab=readme-ov-file

#unix #netbsd #opensource

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱/𝟬𝟰/𝟮𝟴 (Valuable News - 2025/04/28) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/04/28/valuable-news-2025-04-28/

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

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

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱/𝟬𝟰/𝟮𝟴 (Valuable News - 2025/04/28) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/04/28/valuable-news-2025-04-28/

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

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

I needed to run an annoying Electron app for something, so I installed Linux on a USB stick and shoved it in an old laptop.

I noticed that it defaults to suspending when the lid is closed... which is fine, except it never wakes up. #NetBSD has no problem waking up from sleep on this ThinkPad X260 hardware...

Show HN: I486SX_soft_FPU – Software FPU Emulator for NetBSD 10 on 486SX

Link: https://github.com/mezantrop/i486SX_soft_FPU
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43815116

#netbsd

@eloy @weirdtreething @famfo @wii #NetBSD is the #Doom of operating systems...

• I'd not be surprised if someone ported @netbsd down to #i286 & #i186 and #PiPico...

Please boost for a larger each and thank you. xoxo
#FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD #RunBSD

BSDCan is in Ottawa, with tutorials June 11-12, 2025, talks & BOFs June 13-14, 2025

Registration is open - https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/registration.html

Also see https://blog.bsdcan.org/2025/03/18/bsdcan-2025-talks-tutorials-and-registration/ for descriptions and tips, contributions: https://indico.bsdcan.org/event/5/contributions/

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

EuroBSDCon 2025, Zagreb, September 2025 -

The Call for Talk and Presentation proposals for EuroBSDCon 2025 is open.

Submit yours at https://events.eurobsdcon.org/2025/

Please also visit the main website https://2025.eurobsdcon.org/ for information about the conference.

See you in Zagreb!

#eurobsdcon #bsd #conference #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #unix #development #devops #freesoftware #libresoftware @eurobsdcon

BSDCan is in Ottawa, with tutorials June 11-12, 2025, talks & BOFs June 13-14, 2025

Registration is open - https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/registration.html

Also see https://blog.bsdcan.org/2025/03/18/bsdcan-2025-talks-tutorials-and-registration/ for descriptions and tips

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