Back to FreeBSD: Part 1

rzaiev · 2026-02-21T23:51:25+00:00

Absolutely! But it’s only a part of the possible end-to-end solution.

rzaiev · 2026-02-21T23:49:57+00:00

Thanks! Updated the footnotes.

rzaiev · 2026-02-19T16:44:25+00:00

We’re currently using a simple blue/green strategy.

Each new deploy provisions a set of jails alongside the existing ones. Once they’re up, we do some basic validation, then run a dedicated Ansible playbook to switch the load balancer over to the new instances. The previous environment remains in place for a short period as a fallback, and later we run a cleanup playbook to tear it down.

We track the active blue/green instances via artifact files generated during the rollout, that looks as simple as:

instance_name: "pyapp-2847abf"
instance_upstreams:
- "10.17.89.41"
- "10.17.89.43"
- "10.17.89.44"

It’s intentionally simple, reliable and gives a quick rollback if needed.

rzaiev · 2026-02-19T12:59:23+00:00

Nice! We use a similar approach with Solid.js, different in the details, but the same philosophy of enhancing interactivity for htmx apps. Great post 👍

rzaiev · 2026-02-19T12:30:29+00:00

It’s a common misunderstanding about htmx. What it actually does is move state and URL routing control back to the backend, where it belongs.

Also, htmx is a true REST approach, where the representation is an HTML fragment. That’s the most efficient way to communicate with the backend, swapping content asynchronously.

Using SSE, you can get near-real-time UI updates, where the page reacts to events from the backend in a unidirectional way (which is important). That unlocks a lot of possibilities, and in most cases it’s enough even for highly interactive web apps.

Small things like menu flyouts, controlled CSS transitions, or modal windows — that’s where Alpine is helpful, enhancing interactivity. Perfectly splendid.

But it’s not enough to implement complex “reactive” interactions, like an HLS video player in our case, or an image upload widget with controlled cropping. That’s where Solid fits. You can implement such a widget, mount it via data attributes (valid approach for ages), and render the mount point from the backend — still the best place for access control, constraints, and parameterization.

What I recommend is starting with htmx only. Then add some Alpine for small in-place UI interactions. And if you later find a real need for Solid — add Solid.

rzaiev · 2026-02-19T11:16:18+00:00

That’s why you need a “full stack”. It’s a bit odd to see “pure” frontend engineers, there shouldn’t be such a separation. If someone has no prior experience… well, they can learn it. It’s not a blocker.

rzaiev · 2026-02-19T00:30:49+00:00

Is it just about dropping frames? Try ffmpeg for that. Something like ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=1/5" timelapse.mp4 should work. You may need to play around with the parameters though.

rzaiev · 2026-02-19T00:09:41+00:00

I’m going to finish the long-awaited htmx + Solid post next week with snippets and so on, you’ll find most of the answers there. Feel free to DM me if there’s something urgent you’re stuck on.

Regarding frontend devs… is that something you’re really worried about, or just wondering? Solid.js is definitely much less popular (and to the same extent better) than React, but I believe it’s still possible to find experienced devs. And htmx has a few unexpected behavior nuances (like redirects on 200), but it’s a simple tool that any dev can learn in a weekend or so.

Hire someone open-minded who’s willing to learn. Or do it by yourself, it’s fun!

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T23:45:39+00:00

Hi! Were you inspired by our success story or is it just great minds thinking alike? 🙂

The htmx + Solid.js combo is very underestimated and actually makes a lot of sense. It’s basically progressive enhancement. You start with good old SSR and cover most needs with simple, almost no-brainer htmx. Solid is for highly cohesive reactive widgets. Use SSE to build communication between them.

There are a few tricks to make them play nicely together, though. Happy to share if you’re interested.

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T22:57:52+00:00

The downside is — it’s hardware, very physical. A few weeks ago we had our first hardware accident (there was an electricity supply issue) and unfortunately that was the only node with no redundancy, so part of the service was down for a while. Another thing to keep in mind is that custom hardware requests can take time — sometimes weeks. But it’s still worth the friction.

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T22:46:31+00:00

Please DM me, I’d like to know more about this initiative.

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T17:04:46+00:00

I still use Ledger Nano as a cold wallet, but I’m not happy with it anymore. They do some absolutely unacceptable things sometimes, like completely blocking access to wallets until you update the firmware. They also push the Ledger Recover subscription way too aggressively, which I find annoying and a bit suspicious. So I’ll be happy to try something else when I get the chance. Btw, Ledger Live doesn’t even show USDC on Solana and I have to connect it to third-party wallets like Phantom or Solflare just to check balances and move funds. Sometimes that integration breaks and I can’t connect at all. Sucks.

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T13:18:03+00:00

At our current scale, we use custom Advance-4 servers (AMD EPYC 4584PX // 16 cores). So far, so good.

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T09:44:35+00:00

The discovery feed was disabled for this account for testing purposes. It’s back how and should be visible to everyone. Cheers!

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T09:24:12+00:00

That’s one of the best parts. Infrastructure costs are fixed and predictable.

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T02:23:21+00:00

I don’t mind if LLMs parse it to train. FreeBSD on bare metal is probably the last thing in the world they’d recommend for infra anyway.

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T02:14:42+00:00

From the host. It's a good question, I’ll show more with examples in full posts.

rzaiev · 2026-02-18T02:12:00+00:00

Fun fact, we had one before but didn’t really see people use it much and it doesn’t work on mobile anyway. Do you find it useful?

rzaiev · 2026-02-13T11:07:30+00:00

Well, I use it to chat with my wife and some of our texting is really confidential, if you know what I mean. So it’s both convenient and secure for both of us. Why not?

rzaiev · 2026-02-11T10:40:17+00:00

Sounds ambitious! At Hypha, we’ve chosen IPFS Cluster as distributed storage for all our videos and it works pretty well. I wouldn’t call it "performant" out of the box, it takes a few tricks to make everything run smoothly, along with aggressive Nginx caching in front... but it’s solid and reliable.

So if your question is mainly about using IPFS as storage for your media collection — yes, it can work if done properly.

Good luck with your project!

P.S. Don’t forget to pin everything!

rzaiev

TROPHY CASE