Hacker News Reader

vermadenon What problem does FreeBSD solve by doing releases the why they do?

Stable ABI and compatibility in each line ... and when you want new/more features - you upgrade to newer branch. Newer branch can also have some features removed like some old telnetd(8) or things like that - if for some reason you use/implemented them and still need them - you should stick to your currently used line (like 12.x) and with update from 12.3 to 12.4 these features will still be there for you.

There are also compat packages in pkg(8) repository - which you can use to have FreeBSD 12.x compatibility on FreeBSD 13.x for example. Thanks to the you do not need to recompile/reinstall your packages after upgrade from 12.x to 13.x for example:

    % pkg search compat | awk '/Con/ {print $1}'
    compat10x-amd64-10.4.1004000.20181014
    compat11x-amd64-11.2.1102000.20181014
    compat12x-amd64-12.2.1202000.20210406
    compat4x-i386-5.3_11
    compat5x-amd64-5.4.0.8.1_1
    compat6x-amd64-6.4.604000.200810_3
    compat7x-amd64-7.4.704000.201310.1
    compat8x-amd64-8.4.804000.20151116
    compat9x-amd64-9.3.903000.20170608

Is this model better then LTS model? Its quite similar I would say. You have LTS with incremental updates or you have for example FreeBSD 12.x with security patches and 'major' upgrades with 12.1, then 12.2 etc.

The better thing in the FreeBSD world is that pkg(8) packages are ALWAYS up to date (or upstream) while the FreeBSD base system (12.x or 13.x) remains at what it is. This way you can stay on your prefered supported FreeBSD version and still have latest software with pkg(8). This is simply not possible on Ubnutu LTS or RHEL systems where packages are outdated and old very quickly.

Hope that helps.

vermadenon QNX DEMO disk (1999)

QNX with its realtime microkernel and its GUI is probably one of the most underestimated OSes out there ... real pity its not free and open source.

When done properly about two decades ago it would slingshot it against Linux really well.

vermadenon Ask HN: Do you think many posts don't get the front page attention they deserve?

Some of them do. Some of them do not. But its a really big hit and miss on the Hacker News. Its really a lot more 'balanced' on Lobsters or Reddit for example ... but its probably a lot more people read/open Hacker News then some subreddit.

What is a real mystery for me is sometimes I add some stuff to HN and it gets 2-3 votes (and misses everything). Then someone else does the same and it gets the Hacker News Front Page and 10000 views - where is the login in that? :)

Regards.

vermadenon FreeBSD Cope with WiFi Fuckup

It all depends on your needs.

I am using FreeBSD on my desktops/laptops since about 2006.

I work with Linux systems (mostly RHEL/SLES/Ubuntu) and some other UNIX systems daily and I still prefer to use FreeBSD for its features and simplicity. More about these here:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/quare-freebsd/

You can use for example ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th edition for some more modern hardware. I really love this old 7-row classic ThinkPad keyboard so I use ThinkPad W520 from 2011 (last one with such keyboard).

Here is a list with FreeBSD laptops with various features tested:

- https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops

I write and maintain my own 'FreeBSD Desktop' series here:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/freebsd-desktop/

... but there are plenty of other such guides - just type "FreeBSD laptop" or "FreeBSD desktop" to get more howtos.

Regards.

vermadenon Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?

- Deathbed Vigil (1994)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4164962/

Chief engineer Dave Haynie of Commodore AMIGA documents company last days through eyes of former employees. Definitely would recommend.

- Robert Kubica - Legend (2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOGugc-T2jc

Story of a one and only Polish F1 and rally driver.

- Science of Fasting (2012)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2210982/

For half a century in Russia/Germany/U.S. doctors and biologists have been exploring a different therapeutic approach: fasting.

vermadenon FreeBSD Journal 2022/07-08 – Science/Systems/FreeBSD

PDF:

- https://freebsdfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/03a...

vermadenon Desktop Environments Resource Usage Comparison

Take a look at the end of article where I added also freecolor(1) and htop(1) memory usage - it seems to be a lot lower then RSS field from top(1) command.

vermadenon Ask HN: What is your default font for coding and terminal?

I usually switch between these:

- Consolas

- IBM Plex Mono

- Monaco

- Monofur

- Ubuntu Mono

- -*-clean-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-2