Colin Percival
FreeBSD developer and former FreeBSD Security Officer; founder of the Tarsnap online backup service and author of the scrypt key derivation function.
Colin Percival did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
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What they believe
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FreeBSD works well as a desktop operating system when paired with a graphical user interface.
Most people think of FreeBSD as being a server OS which is used only via the command line, but as anyone who has attended a BSD conference can attest, it works just fine with a GUI too.
daemonology.netSaid 24 Sept 2026This on korrents
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End-to-end cryptographic signing of requests and responses is more secure than relying on transport-layer encryption like TLS alone.
With requests going over TLS it is obviously less critical now, but end-to-end signing is always going to be better than transport-layer security.
daemonology.netSaid 11 Apr 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
16 October
9 October
8 October
6 October
5 October
1 October
27 September
24 September
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korrents.com
FreeBSD works well as a desktop operating system when paired with a graphical user interface.Their words
Most people think of FreeBSD as being a server OS which is used only via the command line, but as anyone who has attended a BSD conference can attest, it works just fine with a GUI too.
22 September
19 September
17 September
15 September
13 September
8 September
27 August
11 April
From one piece 20 Years on AWS and Never Not My Job 3 beliefs · daemonology.net
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Their words
exceptions are an inherently poor way of handling errors because they make it easier to write bugs which won't be immediately obvious on casual code inspection
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Their words
but I still think the model of Eventually Known Consistency is the better theoretical model even if it is harder for users to reason about.
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Their words
With requests going over TLS it is obviously less critical now, but end-to-end signing is always going to be better than transport-layer security.
19 February
20 January
8 November 2025
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korrents.com
Automation is a lie: every automated thing needs a human on top of it making sure it is working.Their words
That's great, but I don't think it can replace a human poking at virtual machines; my experience with EC2 is that images break in all sorts of wild ways, and nothing beats a human for saying "huh, I have no idea what's going on here but something seems weird".
1 September 2025
From one piece Thoughts on (Amazonian) Leadership 3 beliefs · daemonology.net
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korrents.com
Shipping a half-baked product permanently damages customer trust, even after it is later fixed.Their words
When AWS ships a service which is half-baked, it diminishes customer trust in AWS as a whole; even if the problems in that service ultimately get corrected (either by fixing them or in some cases by simply getting rid of a service which should never have existed in the first place) the memory of a failed launch will live on in customers' minds for years to come.
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Their words
While the same does not directly apply in other fields, working with others to produce the best results for everyone will be much better in the long-term than focusing solely on what Amazon needs right now.
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korrents.com
Listening to customers is invaluable, but you should not build the thing they asked you for.Their words
Customer Obsession is great, but I often see Amazonians taking this too simplistically: "Start with the customer" doesn't have to mean "ask customers what they want and then give them faster horses".
6 June 2025
21 March 2025
4 December 2024
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 8 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
FreeBSD works well as a desktop operating system when paired with a graphical user interface.
Most people think of FreeBSD as being a server OS which is used only via the command line, but as anyone who has attended a BSD conference can attest, it works just fine with a GUI too.
Launching FreeBSD/EC2 desktop AMIs Said 24 Sept 2026
End-to-end cryptographic signing of requests and responses is more secure than relying on transport-layer encryption like TLS alone.
With requests going over TLS it is obviously less critical now, but end-to-end signing is always going to be better than transport-layer security.
20 Years on AWS and Never Not My Job Said 11 Apr 2026
Eventually Known Consistency is a better theoretical model for distributed systems than plain eventual consistency, even though it's harder to reason about.
but I still think the model of Eventually Known Consistency is the better theoretical model even if it is harder for users to reason about.
20 Years on AWS and Never Not My Job Said 11 Apr 2026
Show 5 more
Exceptions are an inherently poor way of handling errors because they make bugs harder to spot on casual code inspection.
exceptions are an inherently poor way of handling errors because they make it easier to write bugs which won't be immediately obvious on casual code inspection
20 Years on AWS and Never Not My Job Said 11 Apr 2026
Automation is a lie: every automated thing needs a human on top of it making sure it is working.
That's great, but I don't think it can replace a human poking at virtual machines; my experience with EC2 is that images break in all sorts of wild ways, and nothing beats a human for saying "huh, I have no idea what's going on here but something seems weird".
How to support FreeBSD on your cloud Said 8 Nov 2025
Listening to customers is invaluable, but you should not build the thing they asked you for.
Customer Obsession is great, but I often see Amazonians taking this too simplistically: "Start with the customer" doesn't have to mean "ask customers what they want and then give them faster horses".
Thoughts on (Amazonian) Leadership Said 1 Sept 2025
Working with the entire ecosystem produces better long-term results than focusing solely on your own organization's immediate needs.
While the same does not directly apply in other fields, working with others to produce the best results for everyone will be much better in the long-term than focusing solely on what Amazon needs right now.
Thoughts on (Amazonian) Leadership Said 1 Sept 2025
Shipping a half-baked product permanently damages customer trust, even after it is later fixed.
When AWS ships a service which is half-baked, it diminishes customer trust in AWS as a whole; even if the problems in that service ultimately get corrected (either by fixing them or in some cases by simply getting rid of a service which should never have existed in the first place) the memory of a failed launch will live on in customers' minds for years to come.
Thoughts on (Amazonian) Leadership Said 1 Sept 2025
Beliefs others hold too
Automation is a lie: every automated thing needs a human on top of it making sure it is working. 2 hold this
That's great, but I don't think it can replace a human poking at virtual machines; my experience with EC2 is that images break in all sorts of wild ways, and nothing beats a human for saying "huh, I have no idea what's going on here but something seems weird".
How to support FreeBSD on your cloud Said 8 Nov 2025
Listening to customers is invaluable, but you should not build the thing they asked you for. 2 hold this
Customer Obsession is great, but I often see Amazonians taking this too simplistically: "Start with the customer" doesn't have to mean "ask customers what they want and then give them faster horses".
Thoughts on (Amazonian) Leadership Said 1 Sept 2025
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 9 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Uses ConnectBot
I run the standard Android code on my phone, with Twidroid installed for accessing Twitter, and ConnectBot for SSH.
usesthis.com 27 Jun 2010
Uses Thunderbird
I use Thunderbird 2.0 for email – yes, I still download all of my email to my laptop.
usesthis.com 27 Jun 2010
Disliked Dell XPS M1530
I do all of my work from a Dell XPS M1530 laptop – Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5 GHz) CPU, 3 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard drive. I don't really like this laptop: It runs quite hot, and all of its air intake is on the bottom, so it tends to overheat if I place it on a bed or carpeted floor.
usesthis.com 27 Jun 2010
Show 6 more
Mixed on Apache
Apache for web serving (I would probably not pick Apache if I cared about performance, but I don't do anything which needs fantastic HTTP serving performance);
usesthis.com 27 Jun 2010
Uses qmail
I use djbdns for DNS (both authoritative and caching); qmail for email; ezmlm for mailing lists;
usesthis.com 27 Jun 2010
Uses djbdns
I use djbdns for DNS (both authoritative and caching); qmail for email; ezmlm for mailing lists;
usesthis.com 27 Jun 2010
Uses Konqueror
I use Konqueror as a web browser whenever possible, but have Firefox 3.6 installed for websites where Konqueror doesn't work.
usesthis.com 27 Jun 2010
Uses Tarsnap
Uses FreeBSD
On my laptop, I run FreeBSD 7.3 (I've been meaning to upgrade to 8.0 but haven't gotten around to it yet) and KDE 3.5.
usesthis.com 27 Jun 2010
Where they publish
Site daemonology.net Personal site; his blog lives at /blog/.
Recent
- Launching FreeBSD/EC2 desktop AMIs 24 Sept 2026 I'm excited to announce — oh don't worry, I'm not doing that again — a new feature for the FreeBSD/EC2 platform: Desktop AMIs.
- Launching Route 53 Files 27 Aug 2026 I'm excited to announce Route 53 Files, a new file system that seamlessly connects any AWS compute resource with Amazon's highest-availability database.
- 20 Years on AWS and Never Not My Job 11 Apr 2026 I created my first AWS account at 10:31 PM on April 10th, 2006. I had seen the announcement of Amazon S3 and had been thinking vaguely about the problem of secure backups — even though I didn't start Tarsnap until…
Show 7 more
- FreeBSD AMI ID pages 19 Feb 2026 In 2021 I started publishing FreeBSD AMI IDs in the SSM Parameter Store; this made it much easier for scripts to launch EC2 instances without needing to have hard-coded AMI IDs. (Indeed, I use this extensively in my reg…
- Patched FreeBSD AMIs 20 Jan 2026 I've been maintaining FreeBSD in the EC2 cloud since 2012, and from October 2013 onwards FreeBSD AMIs had code to automatically download and install security and critical errata updates when they first boot. Importantly…
- How to support FreeBSD on your cloud 8 Nov 2025 As most of my readers are aware, I ported FreeBSD to run on the Amazon EC2 cloud, and have been maintaining the platform ever since. Between this and my (far more recent) role as FreeBSD release engineering lead, I some…
- Thoughts on (Amazonian) Leadership 1 Sept 2025 Amazon's Leadership Principles are famous, not just within Amazon but also in the tech world at large. While they're frequently mocked — including by Amazonians — they're also generally sensible rules by whi…
- A year of funded FreeBSD 6 Jun 2025 I've been maintaining FreeBSD on the Amazon EC2 platform ever since I first got it booting in 2010, but in November 2023 I added to my responsibilities the role of FreeBSD release engineering lead — just in time t…
- Chunking attacks on Tarsnap (and others) 21 Mar 2025 Ten years ago I wrote that it would require someone smarter than me to extract information from the way that Tarsnap splits data into chunks. Well, I never claimed to be the smartest person in the world! Working with Bo…
- My re:Invent asks 4 Dec 2024 As an AWS Hero I get free admission to the AWS re:Invent conference; while it's rare that I'm interested in many talks — in previous years I've attended "Advanced" talks which didn't say anything which wasn't alre…
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
x.com @cperciva His X account.
Recent
- How are we supposed to know which AWS services are going to see price cuts if we don't have @Cloudflare inside the Expo hall to tell us what to expect? (I'm not sure about the "AWS losing" thing, mind you. Cloudflare has made AWS stronger.) 16 Oct 2026
- I can't name all of the AWS services, but to be fair Amazon is horrible at naming their services too. 9 Oct 2026
- Corey is right. With AWS Heroes, things like this are always "we're looking for a few people; let us know if you're interested". It's never "ambush someone with a camera and ask for permission on the spot". And Heroes rank *way* higher on the able-to-say-no scale than interns. 8 Oct 2026
Show 17 more
- I'm planning on being at @AWSreInvent on December 1-3. Is anyone interested in having an EC2 BSD User Group meetup? If yes please let me know; I'm trying to judge interest before asking Amazon for a venue. 6 Oct 2026
- In the early days, if someone said they were using AWS you knew they had figured out how to implement HMAC. I kind of miss those days, but democratization is good too. 6 Oct 2026
- If the @bcndp win the upcoming election, the top income tax bracket in BC will be 57.5%. 5 Oct 2026
- You always could, via a timing attack. It's hard to make looking up login credentials take the same amount of time for the "found" and "not found" paths. Websites which pretend to not reveal whether an account exists are just practicing security theatre. 1 Oct 2026
- Me in 2006: "I'll just build this online backup service quickly and then apply for faculty positions next year." 27 Sept 2026
- Launching FreeBSD/EC2 desktop AMIs: 24 Sept 2026 daemonology.net
- September 20: The leader of British Columbia's opposition party resigns, paving the way for a leadership contest which would normally take about six months. September 22: The leader of the governing party calls a general election for October 24th, two years ahead of schedule. 22 Sept 2026
- Since this is my Alma Mater and it seems to be going viral, I think an important correction is in order: Simon Fraser University is still called Simon Fraser University. One particular campus of SFU has now been given an indigenous name in addition to its English name. 19 Sept 2026
- I needed secure backups because of the work I was doing as FreeBSD security officer. I could do the "secure" part; driving to a datacenter to swap out failed disks was not something I wanted to do. 18 months later, I launched @Tarsnap. 17 Sept 2026
- Heard at a University Senate meeting: "An AFTE, or Activity Full Time Equivalent, is a way of counting students without counting people." 15 Sept 2026
- Conference news: BSDCan 2027 will be in **Vancouver**, July 7-10. Yes, that's right, after over two decades in Ottawa we're moving to a city which has more direct international flights. EuroBSDCon continues moving and will be in Bratislava in 2027, dates TBD. 13 Sept 2026
- FreeBSD 14.5-RELEASE is now available: https://t.co/uA4zmhbt6u Note that this is a "legacy" release intended primarily for maintaining existing systems; most users should deploy FreeBSD 15.1 on new systems. 8 Sept 2026
- I'm confused. Isn't the Speaker of the House of Representatives literally the most senior member of that particular branch of the US government? Who exactly is "upstairs" to him? 6 Sept 2026
- PSA to new parents: Create an email address for your kid. Have it forward to both parents. Preschool, kindergarten, doctors, swimming, skating, dance, soccer... they'll all take *one* email address. You'll be forwarding emails back and forth for years if you get this wrong. 3 Sept 2026
- Fun fact: If you want the EC2 GetPasswordData API to work, you need to output the text "Message: Windows is Ready to use" to the EC2 console. Yes, you can do this on FreeBSD, too. 3 Sept 2026
- Yes it is. American policies have dramatically increased interest among Canadian youth in helping to build a stronger Canada, and as a nation we're happy to help everyone build their skills even if they're too young to take up arms. 1 Sept 2026
- The problem with Corey is that he is sufficiently weird that when he starts a sentence with "True story", I honestly have no idea whether it's literally true or simply a joke. 31 Aug 2026
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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