Login
You're viewing the discuss.systems public feed.
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:12 PM

    If you don't know where to start, a great starting point would be:

    • Get yourself a virtual machine - that can be Qemu or maybe VirtualBox, these are free. There are other options available, depending on the OS you use.
    • Go to NetBSD.org and download the installation image (it can be a USB image or a CD image)
    • Create a virtual machine, add a virtual hard disk, and the NetBSD image you downloaded to it, and start
    • Have the NetBSD website with the manual open. It explains lots and lots of things. You'll learn a lot about your computer by reading it, and it can be useful even for other OSes (if you decide that NetBSD is too hard)
    • Install NetBSD, and then configure a graphical interface for it, and maybe some software, like free office suite (LibreOffice or maybe Abiword+Gnumeric), or incredible graphic editors (Krita and Inkscape). They might not necessarily be what you're used to, but they're worth trying, and you might like them enough to use them on your normal OS.

    Good luck!

    2/2

    💬 12🔄 33⭐ 96

Replies

  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 15, 2026, 11:41 PM

    P.S. alternative operating systems aren't easy. My feeling is that NetBSD and OpenBSD are roughly as easy to get into as Linux used to be 20 years ago. If your hardware is supported, you're in luck, but for computers newer than 5-7 years old, especially laptops, some crucial bits might be missing. The documentation is much better today than it was 20 years ago, though, and the range of ports and software available is pretty good, sure.

    But it still is difficult to use. For me it's learning a new thing under stress while grieving about the computing future I wish I've had.

    💬 21🔄 19⭐ 80
  • OfficeplantOfficeplant@mastodon.social
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:19 PM

    @nina_kali_nina Good luck everyone, my first hangup is finding a proper source of entropy somewhere. (2008 Thinkpad R61i, core2duo life) Also it asking for cylinder and head counts on an SSD, praying BIOS reported all of that correctly.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:28 PM

    @Officeplant you can smash the keys to generate the entropy, especially if you ask a proper RNG for the order of keys to hit

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • OfficeplantOfficeplant@mastodon.social
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:31 PM

    @nina_kali_nina ahh, I did a few minutes of keysmashing but I'm going attempt a proper reinstall if I can figure out how to generate proper entropy on my newer i7-9700T tiny thinkcenter.

    Or I might try NetBSD on my AMD thin-client from 2012 instead of the older thinkpad. I can avoid wireless issues that way as well.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:37 PM

    @OliviaVespera sadly none of them would work with Steam. You could have Steam on FreeBSD, according to reports, but it's not fully free of slop. You can also emulate Windows and Linux in NetBSD, and run Steam this way, or use NetBSD's wine and open-source tool called steamdepot to get games from Steam on your computer. The game compatibility won't be very high yet, but some popular indie games like Balatro, Celeste, Va-11 Hall-A or Kitsune Tails would work.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 4
  • Olivia VesperaOliviaVespera@spacey.space
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:39 PM

    @nina_kali_nina then I think, the best thing to do, is to not update the kernal and hope someone finds a way to rebase linux. at least for the moment.

    I do want to explore BSD though.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:43 PM

    @OliviaVespera I fear there won't be much progress in this area :(
    But there are other hopes; it should be possible, with relatively small amount of tweaks, to run podman with virtualized Linux kernel, and thus bring Linux+Steam+Proton in a container. And maybe even get GPU pass-through eventually...

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:38 PM

    @alexmu their official stance is that LLM code is not compatible with OpenBSD in license. However, they imported some LLM tainted code from the upstream (e.g. tmux and Xorg)

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 4
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • ShadSterlingShadSterling@mastodon.social
    Oct 15, 2026, 7:33 PM

    @nina_kali_nina another way to start is by switching from proprietary and/or OS-specific apps to apps that can run on BSD. I used to use the Mac-specific Banktivity to track my bank accounts, now I’ve gone back to using spreadsheets, in LibreOffice which runs on BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows. I’m in the process of replacing the macOS builtin Mail.app, testing whether the Vivaldi browser’s builtin client suits me. Maybe after I switch I should write up what I land on and why…

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 6
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • XfavataXxfavatax@haunted.computer
    Oct 15, 2026, 8:00 PM

    @nina_kali_nina I used the live NetBSD image to verify that all my necessary hardware was working before I proceeded to a full install. I am apparently one of the lucky few where wifi just worked out of the box.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 5
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 2
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 15, 2026, 8:37 PM

    @unchartedworlds the Zoom app doesn't work, but the Zoom-through-website used to work in the past. Recently it's been crashing my Firefox, and I don't have Chromium to try it out. All and all, it should be possible to find a workaround to join Zoom calls. In fact I need to figure this out for myself, because I have a Zoom class that I need to join regularly.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 16, 2026, 8:48 AM

    @TheEnbyWitch I have a very small Linux with Steam and proton running in an emulator inside NetBSD, it kind of works, though performance isn't stellar. I hope to get Steam working in the future through wine-11, but there's still work that needs to be done, and it likely won't be as compatible as proton

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 16, 2026, 8:46 AM

    @TheEnbyWitch I first thought you plan to install it on a blender, which is not impossible for some blenders (NetBSD slogan is, after all, "of course it runs NetBSD!")

    Current version of blender packaged for NetBSD is 4.2.16 (November 2025 release), with updates happening now and then.

    You'll also need a supported GPU, probably a fast one, which means either a subset of Radeon or Gen10/11 Intel Iris

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Vivi, The Heinous WitchTheEnbyWitch@peoplemaking.games
    Oct 16, 2026, 4:32 PM

    @nina_kali_nina so my GPUs are NVIDIA & Intel UHD Graphics 😅
    I've also been trying out stuff in QEMU, glgears seems to work, but it's my first time using this so I have no clue if I do actually have any hardware accel, haha

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Mx. Eddie Rsilvermoon82@wandering.shop
    Oct 15, 2026, 11:54 PM

    @nina_kali_nina
    That's exactly what I needed to hear, thank you -- I got into Linux a little more than 20 years ago, so that with better documentation sounds like a nice upgrade!

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 2
  • JdeBPJdeBP@mastodonapp.uk
    Oct 16, 2026, 4:31 AM

    @lisp1984

    PC-BSD died some years ago, alas. They left a massive supply chain attack vector open when they discontinued (the BSD) #TrueOS (as it had been then renamed), moreover. I mention this just in case anyone was feeling nostalgic about spinning up an old PC-BSD system. You'll need to disable AppCafe and syscache-daemon *immediately*.

    tty0.social/@JdeBP/11020496346

    Its spiritual successor, albeit that there is no simple incremental upgrade path from PC-BSD/TrueOS to it, is #GhostBSD. #MidnightBSD adds desktops and stuff, as well.

    @nina_kali_nina
    #PCBSD #AppCafe #syscache

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • Nina Kalininanina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:05 AM

    @lisp1984 oh! Do you remember any magazine names? Maybe there are scans, or maybe they're still around

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • XfavataXxfavatax@haunted.computer
    Oct 15, 2026, 11:57 PM

    @nina_kali_nina I felt the same way when initially installing NetBSD a few weeks ago. Set aside some time to investigate your issues and to install and set up your environment and you'll be good to go.

    The NetBSD community is fantastic and willing to help!

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 4
  • Chipbytex64@awesome.garden
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:16 AM

    @nina_kali_nina I ran Linux 20 years ago and I think this sounds pretty spot on. And the level of system documentation effort on the BSDs is just plain better than anything I’ve seen on a Linux, full stop.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 3
  • tom jenningstomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:20 AM

    @nina_kali_nina

    My first Unix was Jolix, 386BSD. Everything was an uphill battle. I knew nothing, zero Unix experience.

    Even with all the slop and horror its so much easier today. True, the BSDs are relatively wild-west build your own log cabin. But the netBSD and FreeBSD manuals are amazing! Nothing like that on 1993. And so much on the net.

    Debian has been excellent. It shows what's possible; it installs cleanly on anything.

    I wish netBSD had acpi support; for simplicity (of my life) i may put freebsd on my desktops and not netBSD. One OS is a lot less work... Yeah waffling i am on this. And zfs seems to be wildly good on my 2017 Stinkpad.

    I had been using xfce, as a joke i brought up ctwm; the joke now is, its everything xfce promises and doesnt deliver: simplicity and light weight. Two downsides: bizarre feature configuration, and one typo and you can end up with as of disfunctional wm. But the latter is fixxed eith a virtusl terminal and pkill, and undo an edit. Gross yes; but the *simplicity* wins times 1000.

    ... One day i may learn how to start my status bar automatically! Lol

    Its like 2026 code squeezed through a 1995 feature filter and brought back to 2026. Feetch is killing us.

    The BSD config system is human scaled. Readme's and RCS tames it. Its utterly testable and predictable. If i was deploying a data center full of boxen id do something else probably; but I'm not.

    I wish there were more hardware drivers.

    I planned ahead and put ThinkPenguin's wifi cards on all my desktops. Supported by all OSs out of the box.

    And a Wi-Fi USB dongle lets me bring up eg. the X13 Thinkpad, which isnt supported by the installer orherwise, then use the net to install the right driver for the native Wi-Fi.

    💬 1🔄 4⭐ 8
  • Pete / Syllopsiumsyllopsium@peoplemaking.games
    Oct 16, 2026, 1:55 AM

    @tomjennings @nina_kali_nina NetBSD does have ACPI support? Do you mean it doesn't work with some specific laptop features, or suspend is having issues?

    The fact SMP works at all means ACPI is present. It's a long time since kernels used MPS to determine CPU architecture.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 2🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 2
  • tom jenningstomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
    Oct 16, 2026, 4:05 AM

    @syllopsium

    I sloppily misspoke. Apologies!

    I better check again, but S3 isn't supported on my Stinkpad. But i seemed to blur that into unsupported, in my head. Stupid facts getting in the way!

    I will rtfm.

    S3 works well enough for my purposes. Hibernate would be nice though but hibernate not supported on FreeBSD either.

    @nina_kali_nina

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • aceryzaceryz@hackerspace.pl
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:25 AM

    @nina_kali_nina I've started with Linux almost 20 years ago, it was a blast – had to learn a lot, but at some point trying to make games run on Linux turned out to be more fun than playing the games. Fortunately, I still love learning, so the comparison of BSD systems to Linux from two decades ago is encouraging, if anything! I've already tested the waters with FreeBSD, but I like NetBSD's clear stance on slop, so I'll try it next on my X220.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • qqjoonq@vivaldi.net
    Oct 16, 2026, 4:25 AM

    @nina_kali_nina Netbsd is actually very usable! Its abit of tinkering like i had to put the ip6addrctl things in the rc.conf and whatever but i just got xfce4 running on it and even played abit of classicube (classic minecraft apparently) on it! I was very positively surprised!

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Ericejstacey@social.joyrex.net
    Oct 16, 2026, 7:57 AM

    @nina_kali_nina
    there's a certain nostalgic romanticism to running something that is still rough around the edges (but gives you so much control). Linux, even "hard" distros like Arch, all have a sheen of polish built in just due to the Linux kernel being so mature and attended to. BSDs lack those resources, so you get something that gives you the feel of the old times, when everything online and off was the wild west. I love it.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Ela - TechnicalOttertechnicalotter@glammr.us
    Oct 16, 2026, 8:48 AM

    @nina_kali_nina huh shouldn’t be too hard (got into Linux when Ubuntu dropped lucid lynx)!

    In all seriousness I plan on grabbing netbsd at some point and dinking about on an old laptop out of curiosity. May become more necessary as time comes on. Good thing my newest x86 machine is from 2016 too…

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Damp CuttlefishDamp_Cuttlefish@mastodon.scot
    Oct 16, 2026, 9:58 AM

    @nina_kali_nina 20 years feels spot on in more ways than one.
    Back then I used Linux daily but kept a dusty windows box for whichever videogames my old school pals were into.

    Pretty soon I'll have moved the last thing I use daily to BSD, and the Linux box will only wheeled out for whichever videogames my old school pals were into.

    Here's hoping the next cycle lasts longer

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • happyborghappyborg@fosstodon.org
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:16 PM

    @nina_kali_nina Could still be a good choice for ethical #HomeLab'ers, though I'm not sure how many of us there are. 🙏

    P.S. I balked at writing 'ethical' there because what I should be saying is more like, "with half a brain and any awareness whatsoever of what's going on with #GenAI" and I'm remembering Linus Torvalds' ridiculous attempt to justify his use because it's a tool just like a compiler or IDE... with no awareness of the differences either in the tech or the impact of that tech.

    💬 0🔄 1⭐ 1
  • a :gnu:bieaz@social.linux.pizza
    Oct 16, 2026, 1:41 PM

    @nina_kali_nina both BSDs are waaay much more easy to get into than pre-2010 GNU/Linux because of installation process. Before that time, installing GNU/Linux was seemingly impossible without a degree in IT or smth (at least for me)

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0