the BSDs in the AI Age

[Justin Sherrill]

The two things I can think of for quantifiable tests:

- What models and software run on BSDs?  There's all sorts of tooling for
accessing LLMs, but how much have made it to BSD?

- How well do LLMs answer questions about BSD specific technology?  Or how
exact are they when answering questions that could also be for Linux
systems?  This one might be enraging, as in "check your systemd settings to
tune your ZFS pools..." or some such.

On Thu, Apr 2, 2026 at 9:15 AM George Rosamond <george at ceetonetechnology.com>
wrote:

> I want to initiate a thread on the "BSDs and AI today."
>
> A few things first.
>
> There are many levels to this discussion, and for the sake of clarity
> and sanity, please top posting. All replies should be inline.
>
> This is useful:
> https://subspace.kernel.org/etiquette.html#do-not-top-post-when-replying
>
> I'm looking to do a presentation on this in the summer for NYC*BUG.
> There hasn't been anything in our community which provides the
> high-level overview of the impact of AI, covering things from the impact
> on the BSD operating systems to the impact on $job, etc. Hopefully this
> thread can provide some raw materials, and become an outlet for
> individual experiences and more general views.
>
> I initiated a similar fruitful (but private) discussion for another
> open-source project, and think it's high-time for us to do the same on
> a public list.
>
> ***
>
> There's a few layers to this discussions. Note these are discussions
> points, not "Yes" or "No" surveys.
>
> * How are LLMs (big tech or otherwise) impacting $job now? Are you using
> Claude Code or similar tools for day to day? Was it required or was it
> your choice? Was there expectations from this tools in terms of
> productivity, etc? This question raises the impact of AWS Bedrock/Kiro...
>
> * Should BSD projects have explicit LLM-focused policies? Look at the
> 2nd point in the NetBSD "Commit Guidelines" at
> https://www.netbsd.org/developers/commit-guidelines.html. OSS-Security
> already discussed the issue with alleged CVEs discovered by people with
> LLMs trying to stack their resume with credentials.
>
> * How should the BSD projects themselves be using LLMs? Integration in
> the shell (oh, please no...)? Porting of APIs for big tech LLMs?
> Utilizing LLMs to discover bad code, CVEs, undiscovered vulnerabilities?
>
> * How should individual developers and users consider LLMs as tools for
> contributing to the BSDs and other open-source projects? I happily used
> a big tech LLM to deal with an rc file for some very Linuxey software
> wrapped up in systemd clutter.
>
> Other relevant questions added to this thread are welcomed, including
> references to other relevant public mailing list discussions.
>
> g
>
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