BoxyBSD started as a simple idea. Lowering the barrier of entry into the BSD world. What began in late 2022 on spare hardware has grown into a globally distributed, fully automated, free VPS platform that allows beginners and newcomers to explore BSD systems without needing a credit card, prior infrastructure knowledge, or their own hardware.

Where?

This talk was given on December, 11th at the Virtualization Gathering hosted by the credativ GmbH in Mönchengladbach, Germany. You may also find another talk of my ProxWall project at the upcoming event.

The Talk

In this talk, I walk through the journey of BoxyBSD as it really happened. Not as a polished success story, but as an honest look at what it takes to operate a non-commercial and educational hosting platform at scale. From early experiments with FreeBSD jails and bhyve, through painful scaling limitations, to the eventual move toward KVM and Proxmox VE, BoxyBSD reflects many of the trade-offs infrastructure engineers face when ideals meet operational reality.

Beyond technical decisions, this talk is about motivation. Giving something back to open source, enabling learning by doing, and creating a space where curiosity matters more than experience. BoxyBSD is not just about virtual machines. It is about community, education, and the belief that today’s beginners can become tomorrow’s BSD contributors.

I also share why existing solutions were not always sufficient, which gaps led to side projects like ProxLB (website: proxlb.de) and ProxWall, and how automation (including many of my developed Ansible modules [proxmox_node, proxmox_cluster, proxmox_storage,…]), APIs, and open tooling became the foundation for running BoxyBSD clusters across multiple continents.
Finally, the talk looks ahead. With projects like Sylve on the horizon, the BSD virtualization ecosystem is evolving again. BoxyBSD is both a product of today’s tooling and a practical experiment for what might come next.

Slides & Recording

Slides: BoxyBSD_Virtualization_Hypervisor_bhyve_Proxmox_credativ_gyptazy.pdf
Recording: PeerTube | YouTube