BSD Cafe Billboard

Grab a drink, take a seat, and relax.

This is the off-topic corner of the BSD Cafe Billboard.

Introductions, random thoughts, tech tangents, music recommendations, photography, mechanical keyboards, or whatever else is on your mind - it all belongs here.

The only rule: be kind to each other.
We're pro, not against. Supporters, not haters. Builders, not destroyers.

The Lounge is meant to feel like the best part of a conference - the hallway track, the dinner after the talks, the conversation that starts with "so what do you actually run at home?"

Say hi. We'd love to know who's sitting at the table.

Some of us started on machines where 640K was more than enough.

This is the space for vintage hardware, classic operating systems, old-school Unix, CP/M, Amiga, Commodore, early PCs, and anything that makes you feel nostalgic - or curious about how we got here.

Show off your collection, share a restoration project, ask for help getting that old VAX to boot, or just tell us about the first computer you ever touched.

Old hardware never dies. It just waits for someone who still cares.

Where the sun never sets on open-source Unix.

illumos carries forward the legacy of OpenSolaris with technologies that the rest of the world is still catching up to: ZFS, DTrace, Zones, and Crossbow networking.

Whether you're running a home lab or a production environment, this is where you'll find fellow illumos enthusiasts.

Pick your distribution below, or post here for general illumos discussion, kernel topics, and cross-distribution questions.

A new section just appeared on the Billboard.

Some of us got into this world through a Commodore 64, a 386, an Amiga, or a terminal that weighed more than we did. Those machines deserve a corner of their own.

RetroComputing is now open - for vintage hardware, classic operating systems, restoration projects, and the stories behind the machines that made us who we are.

Head over, introduce your oldest working machine, and let's see what's still running out there.

This is where the BSD Cafe staff shares news, updates, service changes, and important notices about our community and infrastructure.

If you want to stay in the loop about what's happening behind the counter, you're in the right place.

Keep an eye on this category - we'll post here whenever something changes, breaks, gets fixed, or gets launched.

Discussion is welcome: if you have questions about an announcement, just reply here. For general chat, head over to the BSD Cafe Lounge.

Zones. ZFS. bhye. KVM. The cloud's best-kept secret.

SmartOS brings the full power of illumos to hypervisor and container workloads. Discuss installations, vmadm, imgadm, Triton, or just share how you're using SmartOS to quietly run circles around the competition.

Welcome to the main BSD discussion area of the Billboard.

Whether you run FreeBSD on production servers, OpenBSD on your firewall, NetBSD on that old SPARC in the closet, or DragonflyBSD because you love HAMMER - this is your space.

Pick the subcategory that matches your flavor, or post here for cross-BSD topics: comparisons, migrations, general questions, or anything that doesn't fit neatly under a single project.

No question is too basic, no setup is too weird. Pull up a chair.

I'm pinning this post, thank you!

The community-driven continuation of the OpenSolaris vision.

Discuss OpenIndiana installations, packaging (IPS), desktop experience, or anything related to keeping the Solaris heritage alive and well in the open-source world.

@Tionisla Welcome!!!

Yes, there's a Linux section at the BSD Cafe. We are inclusive!

Many of us work with Linux alongside BSD in production, at home, or both.

This is the place to discuss Linux distributions, tools, kernel news, or anything Linux-related - especially if you're coming from Linux and curious about BSD, or running both.

The coffee is the same, the conversation is good, and the door is always open.

Built for the server room.

OmniOS Community Edition is the go-to illumos distribution for production deployments: lean, stable, and focused on what matters. Discuss zones, ZFS, networking, LX-branded zones, or your production architecture here.

Secure by default, no compromises.

Discuss anything related to OpenBSD here: pf, pledge, unveil, httpd, relayd, installations, hardware support, or just why you chose OpenBSD and never looked back.

Whether you run it as your daily driver or as the silent guardian of your network, this is your table.

The Billboard just got a hallway track.

We've added a Conferences section with dedicated subcategories for the three major BSD conferences: EuroBSDCon, BSDCan, and AsiaBSDCon.

Whether you're preparing a talk proposal, looking for travel tips, writing a trip report, or trying to figure out who's going this year - now there's a place for that conversation to live longer than a Fediverse thread.

More conferences may be added over time based on community interest. If you think something is missing, let us know.

HAMMER time.

This is the home for all things DragonflyBSD: HAMMER2, virtual kernels, performance tuning, and the unique design choices that set DragonflyBSD apart.

A smaller community, but that makes every conversation count.

Welcome!

@naltun It's great, when you get used to it

Lightweight, different, and proud of it.

Tribblix takes illumos in its own direction with a unique packaging system and a minimalist philosophy. If you run it, you already know why.
Share your experience, ask questions, and connect with others who appreciate doing things a little differently.

@grahamperrin@mastodon.bsd.cafe "this is fine!"

The house blend of the BSD world - versatile, reliable, and everywhere.

This is the place to discuss FreeBSD in all its forms: ports and packages, ZFS, jails, bhyve, networking, Bastille, hardware compatibility, or just sharing your setup.

Whether you're running FreeBSD on a Raspberry Pi or a production cluster, you belong here.

New to FreeBSD? Don't hesitate to ask.
There's always someone at the counter who's been through it before.

The best part of any conference isn't the talks - it's the people you meet between them.

This is the space for everything conference-related: announcements, trip reports, talk reviews, travel tips, who's going where, and the conversations that started at a dinner table and never quite finished.

Pick the specific conference below, or post here for general discussion - CFPs, new events, or anything that doesn't fit a single conference.

See you there. Or here, at least.