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Gemlog
The year 2021 has been incredibly productive and despite the additional work for bi-posting most of my articles, using my Gemlog has put the fun back into writing. I've published _three_ post series with four or more articles each. One was about PXE-booting various operating systems from a FreeBSD server, another about using OPNsense to get rid of my ISP-provided router and the last one about package building on FreeBSD with Synth. I've written two articles about Advance!BSD, a project idea to build a not-for-profit, community-based hosting provider and two more about a comparison of Pkgsrc and Ravenports. In two articles I explained my stance on why I think the Stallman drama was a pretty bad campaign and why that position does not make me a women hater at all. I've also written on a dangerous trend in Open Source to not let smaller projects participate and on re-learning touch-typing a second time with another keyboard layout.
(Jan 2021) Dystopian Open Source
This post is about a phenomenon in Open Source that could be described as hostility towards contributions from "less important" projects. Some of that is due to ignorance by a certain type of developers and some due to increasing corporate influence on Open Source. It's high time to realize the dangers in this and oppose the wrong direction things are currently heading!
(Jan 2021) Multi-OS PXE-booting from FreeBSD 12: Introduction (pt. 1)
Part 1 of this mini-series explains why you might want a multi-OS PXE server on FreeBSD, includes an excursion about what PXE is in short and shows how I prepared a test machine to be a gateway and nameserver.
(Jan 2021) Multi-OS PXE-booting from FreeBSD 12: Required services (pt. 2)
In part 2 the actual services required for PXE booting are set up. Two options are described for both of the third-party services used (DHCP server and File Server) so the reader can pick from them.
(Feb 2021) Multi-OS PXE-booting from FreeBSD 12: PXE menu and *BSD (pt. 3)
Part 3 of the series covers preparing and configuring the NBP and menu (including optional submenus). It also shows how to prepare our machine for serving working installations of all the major BSDs - with the exception for DragonFly BSD that I could not get working without using NFS.
(Feb 2021) Multi-OS PXE-booting from FreeBSD 12: Linux, illumos and more (pt. 4)
The mini series ends with examples for adding various Linux and illumos distributions as options to the PXE server. A couple of other Open Source operating systems are also covered.
(Feb 2021) Re-learning to type... again! (From Neo to Bone)
After using an ergonomical keyboard layout for more than half a decade, I felt that I might try something new. My old layout (Neo) works great, but after learning of a newer variant (Bone), I wanted to try it out - and am fascinated by what the human brain is capable of doing.
(March 2021) Cancelling Richard Stallman?
This post is one that I didn't think I'd ever write: I'm defending Stallman against defamation by "cancel culture" activists. I also write about the dangers of such movements for today's society.
(April 2021) Women... in tech?! (And elsewhere)
After having been accused of only caring about men's interests, in this article I explain my stance towards women: I'm not indifferent to the very real problems they are facing in society. Here's why and some proposals that I make.
(April 2021) FreeBSD router take 2 (pt. 1): OPNsense ZFS-based installation (by converting FreeBSD)
In this first post of my new series, I show how to install OPNsense as a root-on-ZFS system by setting up a FreeBSD system first and then converting that.
(April 2021) FreeBSD router take 2 (pt. 2): FreeBSD and security (excursion)
This article discusses what I think security means in today's world - and how FreeBSD performs security-wise.
(May 2021) FreeBSD router take 2 (pt. 3): De-hardening OPNsense for 2022? (excursion)
Where the previous article discussed the parts where FreeBSD shines when it comes to security, this one is about the bad parts. It also looks at why HardenedBSD is important, why OPNsense leaving it behind still arguably makes sense and why OpenBSD is not an option.
(May 2021) FreeBSD router take 2 (pt. 4): Demoting my ISP's router
This article is about using a DSL modem together with OPNsense to replace my ISP's router (except for telephony). It shows how to configure both.
(May 2021) FreeBSD package building pt. 1: Introduction and test system
This article discusses the theory of package building: When to do it and which way? What program to use in which case? And how to work with ports after FreeBSD migrated to Git? It also includes the setup for a test system that will be used for demonstrating package building and system updating in the next post(s).
(May 2021) FreeBSD package building pt. 2: Basic Synth
This article is an introduction to Synth in general. It also shows how to install it and get it building packages. What the various things involved mean and how to deal with repositories is discussed as well.
(June 2021) FreeBSD package building pt. 3: Intermediate Synth
This article covers Synth's configuration, using the compiler cache and upgrading the system.
(June 2021) FreeBSD package building pt. 4: (Slightly) Advanced Synth
This article is about Synth's web reports, package sets and serving repositories. We're taking a look at build problems, too.
(June 2021) FreeBSD package building pt. 5: Sophisticated Synth
This article is about signing package repositories, make.conf for port options, profiles and using Synth with cron.
(June 2021) Advance!BSD - thoughts on a not-for-profit project to support *BSD (1/2)
The first part of the article introduces the Advance!BSD project and discusses a bit of background as well as the "why".
(June 2021) Advance!BSD - thoughts on a not-for-profit project to support *BSD (2/2)
The second part of this article is about the "what" and the "how" of the project.
(November 2021) Cross-platform package building: Pkgsrc vs. Ravenports (1/2)
This article introduces the reader to some of the troubles of cross-platform package management. It also briefly covers strategies to solve the problems that come with it.
(December 2021) Cross-platform package building: Pkgsrc vs. Ravenports (2/2)
The second part of this article features a short introduction of Pkgsrc and Ravenports before discussing how they compare. The scenario is covered as well as the results and a conclusion.