This seems offtopic, but some seem to think they are entitled to an i386 OS, maintained and developed for free.  Unfortunately that's not how it works. Big corporations such as MS kept x86_32 alive because it was in their business interests to do so. Unlike the OpenBSD project, MS had the resources and developers to do this. This was out of necessity - i.e. due to the very large number of devices still out there at the time, which could potentially have become Linux machines if MS had moved fully to 64 bit (as Intel famously attempted with IA64).

https://www.openbsd.org/i386.html

https://www.freebsd.org/platforms/i386/
(And by 15.0-release i386 will be unsupported)

Support for the platform is on the decline due to the declining numbers of machines still in use.  CPUs of the current platform, amd64, have been in production for over 20 years.

As to systemd files in Devuan, the project's standpoint is correct: Packages will come with harmless bits and pieces, such as unit files, which are not worth the trouble removing. If someone regards those files as being equivalent to systemd being installed, then you probably can't help them, as they are likely a) misinformed,  b) ideologically and emotionally driven and c) don't have the technical aptitude to learn and correct their misapprehension. If you don't like what's on offer, you aquire the skills and build your own. If you lack the skills to do this, then you either pay someone who can or you just use what's on offer.

Just need to get a bucketload of money from somewhere and we're good to go...

Someone has to volunteer and step up to do the work to maintain an i386 or other obsolete architecture OS. Charities may provide obsolete computers to the developing world, but they don't provide or maintain the OS.

Soon there will be tons of old amd64 hardware up for grabs, quite ironically thanks to Windows 11. At that point any perceived problems with phasing out i386 will be much smaller, decisions much easier for those maintaining an OS.

The real issue here, is the prevalence of IME/PSP in newer amd64 CPUs along with faux security features such as Secureboot, TPM chips, and as time goes on the choice is getting much narrower to the point where the x86 platform is no longer a viable choice for anyone who values privacy. Make no mistake about it : MS and its OEM cartel were up to their necks in this mutual back scratching.

Intel walked away from spectre/meltdown with barely a scratch - fast forward to the present and it's going to sell a lot more CPUs thanks to MS Windows 11...

The sad reality is that the whole x86 platform is a lost cause and the key players in that platform are some of the biggest donors to the Linux kernel and are bankrolling and steering projects such as wayland, systemd and Debian.

The "deep state", has to be theoretical, in order to be the deep state...  you cannot prove it exists, even though there are several theories.  Yes there are theories, but most are what amounts to bullshit spread by the misinformed, or disinformation spread by "conspiracy theorists" wanting to make money out of gullible people / amass followers / all of the above.

It seems that you actually believe that the "deep state" and tech billionaires such as Bill Gates are "communists" (rather than capitalists).  You must have a very poor understanding of communism.  It appears to me that you are subscribing to the popular US idea of a "left", i.e. a left which isn't a left at all, but some form of "right wing authoritarian" politics.

The anti zionist conspiracy, fueled by the "Khazar hypothesis", has long since been dis-proven (via genetic testing) and has no basis at all.

I stopped reading there, as would most reasonably intelligently people.

Any "deep state actors" you may refer to aren't interested in this kind of group - in fact those kinds of groups, including far right, nationalist and white supremecist groups, are understood to be utilised and nurtured by theoretical deep states around the world.

This is likely a combination of paranoia, computer illiteracy, existing unrelated malware, the platform itself, i.e. server load, or those clients trying to connect using Tor Browser for example. You should examine the far more credible causes first.

That's a separate issue.  Unfortunately, as per my earlier post, you may have to install the nvidia proprietary driver.  To get stable performance, and working power management.

Sakura is a decent terminal emulator.  Unfortunately, I'm almost 99% certain it doesn't support pseudo transparency (just tested it here on FreeBSD 14.1 and it seems you need a compositor running).  Unless you're completely averse to compositors you could try xcompmgr, which is very lightweight and easy enough to configure in just a single command line to run from .xsession / .xinitrc.

@steve_v, yes apparrently the local package install has been a feature since APT 1.1 (released in 2015). You have to specify the full path or it searches a remote repository.   I didn't know about that one - dpkg always worked for me though I suppose.

JWM-Kit has a valid point and argues from a realist perspective - ideology and moralising won't stop the development of GAI by "Big Tech".  As with splitting the atom, you can't put this "AI" thing back in the box and just forget about it and/or ban it.  You cannot go and smash the printing presses as the Luddites did and even if you did, the presses will be remade (as they were).

It will be used and is being used (MS Copilot), in the next phase of the ever expanding global surveillance/spying/profiling/telemetry infrastructure which permeates today's web and computing platforms.  Without free and open alternatives, this "AI" will be squarely in the hands of "Big Tech" only, who will use that as leverage to more firmly cement the monopolies it has been building throughout the web and within "open source" for the last 15 to 20 years.

It is also being used in defense, "Project Maven" for example.  The problem is already far larger than most realise...

My interpretation was that this is more a matter of removing browsing history on closing the browser - quite different from anonymity.

Tor browser does that by default because it's set to private browsing mode or not to store history at all - can't remember which,  as I haven't used it in years.

@zapper, you are terribly misinforned with regards to FreeBSD. Please educate yourself and return with some fact based critique.

@stopAI, there's no more to know - he's spreading what amounts FUD. Some facts here on GPL in base:

https://wiki.freebsd.org/GPLinBase

The only code FredBSD ports from the Linux kernel that I know of is the KMS/DRM graphics driver stack, which is deveoped by Intel and AMD, among others and permissive licensed. NetBSD and OpenBSD also port this same code.

Daemons are from greek mythology, but that's irrelevant - it's just a mascot/logo. If you have a problem with it, it's just your problem and you choosing to take offence. Improperly prepared pufferfish probably killed more people than daemons.

I think you may confusing this with bin and sbin seperation.

This is about merging /lib, /lib64, /sbin and /bin into the directories of the same name under /usr

They would become symlinks and nothing more. It may do no harm, but I'm not sold on it being necessary. Historically those directories were in / because /usr may have been on a separate partition and therefore not available in certain circumstances. The rest of the maintenance related points are just "problem, reaction, solution" politics. The maintenance issue is one they have created by merging and are now proposing to solve in suggesting all others should do the same. And you can be sure it won't stop there...

systemd project are citing "compatibility" with other "Unixes" in particular Solaris, which they have absolutely never cared about before. Suddenly Solaris is the "primary Unix implimenation", the BSDs are never mentioned. Solaris has been in maintenance mode since the last release in 2018, it's future was in serious doubt since the aquisition by Oracle and when most of the developers were laid off in 2017. The references to Solaris is simply smoke and mirrors to coerce / convince the general Linux fans to spread the word, as they did with regard to systemd itself.