GNU/Linux and BSD Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 11, 2026

• Kernel Space / File Systems / Virtualization

  • Uros Popovic ☛ How KVM and QEMU run VMs in Linux

    When I first encountered virtualization, I was quite confused about the exact roles of KVM and QEMU. These terms often appeared side-by-side, leading me to initially believe they were distinct solutions to the same problem.

    While there are some minor overlaps in their functionality, they don’t serve the same fundamental purpose. In fact, they complement each other to deliver optimal performance for virtual machines.

    In this article, we’ll build an intuitive understanding of virtualization in Linux, starting from the most basic approach and progressively moving towards the sophisticated QEMU/KVM combination.

• Games

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Doom conquers the kitchen through an electric cooking pot — classic shooter runs seamlessly after a full device firmware refresh

    A YouTuber has managed to run Doom on a Krups Cook4Mec smart pressure cooker after dumping and reflashing the firmware on the appliance’s touchscreen control hardware.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Steam Machine pricing soars past PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X in new retailer listing — 1TB SKU shatters $1,000 barrier

    Czech retailer Smarty has listed Valve’s highly anticipated Steam Machine at $950 for the 512GB version and $1,070 for the 1TB model—both before taxes.

• Desktop Environments (DE)/Window Managers (WM)

  • Howard Oakley ☛ Explainer: Copy and paste, drag and drop

    These are two of the defining features of the Macintosh, pioneered in the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, and first offered to the general public in implementations by Larry Tesler (1945-2020), Jef Raskin (1943-2005), Bill Atkinson (1951-2025), Andy Hertzfeld and others at Apple.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • University of Toronto ☛ Distribution source packages and whether or not to embed in the source code

    The Arch approach is isomorphic to the source RPM format, which has various extras and instructions plus a pre-downloaded set of upstream sources. It's not really isomorphic to the Debian source format because you don't normally work with the split up version; the split up version is just a package distribution thing (as dgit shows).

    (I believe the Arch approach is also how the FreeBSD and OpenBSD ports trees work. Also, the source package format you work in is not necessarily how you bundle up and distribute source packages, again as shown by Debian.)

  • Pivot to AI ☛ If users notice your software, you’re already a loser

    Nobody wants a computer. They want what it does. Not the annoying machine. Including phones.

  • BSD

    • Vermaden ☛ Add Port to FreeBSD Ports

      In not so distant past I used shar(1) tool that was part of the FreeBSD Base System to generate information needed to either create new port or to update the old one. It was also one of the officially supported ways to do that … but shar(1) tool is no more – it was removed from the FreeBSD Base System and (fortunately) kept as sysutils/freebsd-shar port.

      Now sending the diff from git(1) is needed – but as I read the FreeBSD Porters Handbook – Quick Porting chapter … and tried to follow the instructions one by one … I was not able to generate the needed information. Its not that this official guide is written ‘bad’ on purpose – its probably the ‘missing’ steps are so obvious for FreeBSD maintainers/porters/developers that they even forget to mention them at all.

      After some time with the problem I found a simple way that works for me – and today I am sharing that as some of you may also find that information useful.