schmonz.com is a Fediverse instance that uses the ActivityPub protocol. In other words, users at this host can communicate with people that use software like Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, etc. all around the world.
This server runs the snac software and there is no automatic sign-up process.
A few months ago, I set myself a simple goal: understand the operating systems I use.
The journey has been fun, but there’s always a bit of fiction along the way.
Spend a week deep in the #FreeBSD world, then switch back to #MacOS or #Arch, and you quickly realize how much your own muscle memory slows you down.
So I built and open-sourced UPKG:
https://github.com/seuros/upkg
UPKG gives you a single package management command across operating systems.
It doesn’t replace the native package manager. It simply provides a consistent interface so you can use the same commands everywhere.
On macOS, it can completely replace Brew.
If you’re thinking about moving to BSD, install UPKG first. Get comfortable with the syntax, then when yo a’re ready, drop the 'u' and use pkg directly. Or keep using UPKG if you prefer.
PS: Nothing here is vibe-coded. I read the source code of every target package manager and wrote a proper wrapper around them.
We are live!
I’m really happy to tell you that Billy is now available for download in the Mac App Store and directly from my website.
https://apps.apple.com/app/billy-invoice-manager/id6752519012
My MBP M1 Tahoe is almost freezing daily. Unuseably slow. Can't figure out why.
If I run any of the stats monitoring tools I know, CPU and memory seem to be fine. Same with drive space.
Appears to be something to do with the filesystem. Open apps run fine, until they try to do something like spawn a terminal instance, or try to retrieve a list of files.
Too many files open? Failing drive?
Ideas?
Well, finally the DVI/HDMI converter came and I tried to boot up the donated Cheesegrater ¹ I took delivery of recently, and it seems it's dead.
No startup chime, fans spin so loud I thought a jet engine was taking off in the house, no video output. Suspecting some kind of HW failure.
Anyone know what the usual culprits are?
¹ PowerMac G5 A1047 EMC1969
5 Easy Steps To Crop An Image in Inkscape
Step-by-step instructions on how to use Inkscape to crop an image whether you are a beginner or advanced user.
wow, `fd -x` (or -X) on #macOS is _bonkers_ faster than `find | xargs`
Great way to clean down your ~/Library cruft
is there someone on here who uses #pkgsrc with #macos ?
i can download #alacritty with pkgsrc now, but the version it installs for macos doesn't seem to be the version i can download from github -- it isn't installed to /Applications and has to be bootstrapped via Terminal.app to run.
are there any clever/simple ways to rig this up? am i missing something obvious?
MacOS 27 drops Intel support, will be last release with Rosetta 2
With the announcement of an upcoming new macOS release also come the usual changes in which Macs will still be supported. MacOS 27 Golden Gate is an important release in this regard, as it will be the first release of Apple's desktop operating system that will be entirely ARM-only, dropping support for all In
Want strict guidelines on designing very Mac-assed apps so you don’t end up just shipping a stretched out iPad app?
Check out the Mario HIG for Macintosh apps. Make your apps Macintosh AF!!!
Get some strict guidelines on making sidebars, toolbars, layouts (especially those for Settings), and Inspectors!!!
All this is free too.
But if you feed my HIG into some LLM, don’t tell me about it. I don’t want or need to know.
Happy Coding!
Sort of. Folk wisdom has #macOS derived from #FreeBSD. But actually XNU is a descendent of #NeXTSTEP. Both FreeBSD and NeXTSTEP were derived from from BSD, but not from *exactly* the same point in its evolution and neither from the other.
And of course they diverged from each other.
But you can, say, pull up an old iOS manual page and see it saying 'BSD' at the head, compare it with the same page from FreeBSD, and contrast it with #Debian and #Illumos:
https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tzset&sektion=3
https://man.dragonflybsd.org/?command=tzset§ion=3
https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/manpages-dev/tzset.3.en.html
In today's MacOS struggles: apparently you cannot change the default email handler without opening Mail.app and changing settings.
But there's a problem. When you open Mail.app you cannot access settings without first adding an email account. Which I stubbornly don't want to do because I don't want to use Mail.app _at all_. I don't use the big providers, and don't want to connect it to my iCloud.
Aggravating. I'm sure there's an arcane way (there always is).
Can somneone explain me this?
On #MacOS's Save File dialog, if a file with a `:` already exists, the colon is replaced by `/` in the file listing.
And if I want to write a filename with a `: `, the text input changes it to `-`!
Copying Remote Command Output to Your macOS Clipboard
A small trick to copy command output from a remote ssh session directly into the local macOS clipboard, using OSC 52 and a tiny shell script.
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2026/05/26/copying-remote-command-output-to-your-macos-clipboard/
#ITNotes #macOS #Mac #Apple #shell #ssh #Linux #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #illumos #Terminal #Clipboard
Ladies and germs, @bbedit 16.0 is out! I repeat: #BBEdit 16.0 has been released.
Update and/or purchase accordingly. This app has been a daily-driver for me since 1994 or ’95. #TextEditors #HTML #CSS #macOS https://www.barebones.com
I like Dropover, a file shelf utility for the Mac, has a shake cursor to open shelf file. Also has custom quick actions you can drop the file onto to quick share/airdrop or even run shortcuts. Been using it for years.
#macOS
@gruber https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/14/googlebooks
How fast is a macOS VM, and how small could it be?
To assess how small a macOS VM could be, I ran the same VM of macOS 26.4.1 on progressively smaller CPU core and memory allocations, using my virtualiser Viable. The VM’s display window was set to a standard 1600 x 1000, and I ran Safari through its paces and performed some lightweight everyday tasks, including Storage analysis in Setting
https://www.osnews.com/story/144876/how-fast-is-a-macos-vm-and-how-small-could-it-be/
I'm considering bumping the macOS requirements for my binary package repository available at https://pkgsrc.smartos.org/install-on-macos/ again.
There's already a bunch of packages missing because they have newer C++ requirements than Xcode 15.4 supports.
What OS are folks running?
| macOS 14 Sonoma: | 3 |
| macOS 15 Sequoia: | 15 |
| macOS 26 Tahoe: | 10 |
Closed
Why do Macs ask you to press random keys when connecting a new keyboard?
You might have seen this, one of the strangest and most primitive experiences in macOS, where you’re asked to press keys next to left Shift and right Shift, whatever they might be.
Perhaps I can explain.
↫ Marcin Wichary
It seems pretty obvious to me that's what it was for, but I guess man
That's your reproduction problem, right there.
https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116375184842626746
Jay 🚩boosted
Here are some things that one can add to the analysis of the MacOS TCP timeout clock freeze bug.
The code for calculate_tcp_clock() in XNU was changed in May 2025. Older versions of this function (e.g. in xnu-11417) worked quite differently and wouldn't have stopped ticking the clock at 32-bit unsigned integer wraparound.
None of #NetBSD, #FreeBSD, nor #OpenBSD share this exact way of doing TCP timeout processing with #XNU.
FreeBSD does not have a tcp_now and works off the global 32-bit ticks variable. OpenBSD effectively works off the kernel's system clock, too, but with a randomized offset, and does 64-bit unsigned modular arithmetic. NetBSD uses a distinct 32-bit unsigned tcp_now counter that it simply increments by 1 at regular intervals, and does modular arithmetic subtraction.
https://photon.codes/blog/we-found-a-ticking-time-bomb-in-macos-tcp-networking
boostedHere are some things that one can add to the analysis of the MacOS TCP timeout clock freeze bug.
The code for calculate_tcp_clock() in XNU was changed in May 2025. Older versions of this function (e.g. in xnu-11417) worked quite differently and wouldn't have stopped ticking the clock at 32-bit unsigned integer wraparound.
None of #NetBSD, #FreeBSD, nor #OpenBSD share this exact way of doing TCP timeout processing with #XNU.
FreeBSD does not have a tcp_now and works off the global 32-bit ticks variable. OpenBSD effectively works off the kernel's system clock, too, but with a randomized offset, and does 64-bit unsigned modular arithmetic. NetBSD uses a distinct 32-bit unsigned tcp_now counter that it simply increments by 1 at regular intervals, and does modular arithmetic subtraction.
https://photon.codes/blog/we-found-a-ticking-time-bomb-in-macos-tcp-networking
Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah ported to Nintendo Wii
Since its launch in 2007, the Wii has seen several operating systems ported to it: Linux, NetBSD, and most-recently, Windows NT. Today, Mac OS X joins that list.
In this post, I’ll share how I ported the first version of Mac OS X, 10.0 Cheetah, to the Nintendo Wii. If you’re not an operating systems expert or low-level engineer, you’re in good co
https://www.osnews.com/story/144756/mac-os-x-10-0-cheetah-ported-to-nintendo-wii/