- Author
- Posted by birdculture, with replies from many commenters
- Published
- 14 October 2025
- Kind
- Hacker News discussion thread
- Original
- news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45582758
- Subject
- Systems and hardware
What it is
Posted by birdculture on Hacker News, linking to smolbsd.org. The replies come from many commenters. They discuss what SmolBSD is, how it compares with similar projects and what is missing.
What it says
- Commenter alexellisuk found smolBSD fast to build and boot. A patch is hinted to cut boot time from 100ms to 10ms.
- One commenter says smolBSD, unlike MirageOS, gives access to a full Unix system.
- Commenter jmmv says the BSDs keep backward compatibility by default.
- Commenter jmmv says a combined kernel and userland helps build features end to end.
- Commenter metadat cites 7.3m lines of code for NetBSD and 9m for FreeBSD.
- Commenter alexellisuk finds the documentation thin. The SSH example lacks key setup and port mapping.
What evidence it gives
The thread offers opinions and a few firsthand trials. One commenter reports fast builds and boots, citing a hinted 10ms boot. No benchmarks or code are posted. Line counts for NetBSD and FreeBSD appear without a source.
Interests and limits
Commenters are mostly users and hobbyists, and one links the commenter's own blog and talk. No SmolBSD maintainer is identified among them. Claims such as backward compatibility rest on personal experience. The linked site was not read.