Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

illumos Cafe: Another Cozy Corner for OS Diversity

2025-08-21

Following the success of the BSD Cafe, the illumos Cafe project has launched. Similar in spirit to the BSD Cafe, illumos Cafe aims to provide services running on illumos-based operating systems, demonstrating their usability and promoting open-source OS diversity. Currently, it hosts Mastodon and snac instances, with plans to expand services. The project embraces a positive and inclusive philosophy, seeking to create a free and independent community, free from the control of large tech companies.

(it-notes.dragas.net)

Development

Building an Unbreakable Backup Server: FreeBSD, ZFS, and Multi-layered Security

2025-08-02

This article details building a secure and reliable backup server using FreeBSD, ZFS, and BastilleBSD. The author stresses data redundancy and multi-layered encryption, outlining backup strategies for FreeBSD ZFS servers (using zfs-autobackup), other systems (using BorgBackup), and Proxmox servers (using Proxmox Backup Server and Minio). The article delves into VPNs, network isolation, snapshots, and security hardening, aiming to help readers create a robust backup system resilient to various threats.

(it-notes.dragas.net)

Development backup server

Backup: Beyond a Simple Copy

2025-07-20

The importance of data backup is often underestimated. This article, based on the author's experiences, recounts various data loss scenarios, emphasizing that backup is more than just a simple copy; it requires a comprehensive plan and strategy. It explores the pros and cons of full disk versus individual file backups and the crucial role of snapshots in ensuring data consistency. The author also shares their preference for a centralized backup server architecture and guiding principles for an efficient backup system, previewing subsequent articles detailing their FreeBSD-powered backup server setup.

(it-notes.dragas.net)

Development

NetBSD Server and Family Business Infighting: A Battle of Trust and Technology

2025-05-14

Sixteen years ago, the author was asked by a friend to help a family business establish an IT system to address its chaotic financial situation. He built a NetBSD-based server to integrate company data, but faced strong opposition from someone within the company who attempted to erase server data to cover up financial problems. The author ultimately uncovered the conspiracy through past connections, but the server was still destroyed. Despite this, the author protected company information through early backups, but ultimately decided to leave the family business because management was unable to resolve internal corruption. This story tells of conflict involving trust, technology, and ethics, and the frustrating reality that some problems simply cannot be solved.

(it-notes.dragas.net)

Development ethical dilemma

BSSG: A Decade-Long Bash Static Site Generator Goes Open Source

2025-04-30

The author, a long-time website owner since the late 90s, journeyed through various website creation methods—from hand-coding HTML to using WYSIWYG editors and dynamic CMS like WordPress. Frustrated by the constant security updates and maintenance of dynamic CMS, they embraced static site generators. After experimenting with bashblog, Pelican, and Nikola (for which they even created a Docker container), they developed their own Bash Static Site Generator (BSSG) in 2015. Over time, BSSG evolved, incorporating features like theming, archiving, and tagging. Its strengths lie in its lightweight nature, portability, high performance, high accessibility scores, Markdown support, and a variety of themes. While acknowledging imperfections in the code, the author releases BSSG open-source, hoping it benefits those seeking a low-maintenance alternative to dynamic CMS.

(it-notes.dragas.net)

Development