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OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

sogubsys.com

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Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#161

Post by gbrown_ »

sogubsys wrote: post #76
gbrown_ wrote: post #9

> vmd is cool tech, for sure, but it isn’t that useful to me. It is best if you want to run OpenBSD virtual machines or gimped Linux virtual machines. The use of "gimped" is poor choice of words. It would be better if the author described specifically what fell short for them.

From https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq16.html The following features are available: serial console access to the virtual machines tap(4) interfaces per-VM user/group ownership privilege separation raw, qcow2 and qcow2-derived images dumping and restoring of guest system memory virtual switch management pausing and unpausing VMs The following features are not available at this time: graphics snapshots guest SMP support…

I'm aware graphics support isn't fully there. My concern is for the general audience not familiar with the current status. In the post to hand wave over what didn't work when tried and call it "gimped" leads the reader to think any number of things may not work.

I see this has been updated with a link to the FAQ. I'm a big believer in laying out problems as;

- What was expected

- What was tried

- What was the result

- Why the result differed from the expectation

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#162

Post by dijit »

orbifold wrote: post #30
dijit wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote a blog post about it but it was used against me by an interviewer at riot games. So I unpublished it. Essentially it boils down to outlawing vague arrays of behaviour that can apply to essentially anyone and thus must be selectively enforced. I used examples from history surrounding vague laws and the implications that came from that (usually it’s the precursor to huge atrocities or totalitarian regimes. Alth…

Regarding commenting on other people’s appearance: this is something I find personally super tedious. When I am at work I really don’t want people to start commenting on my appearance, both negatively or positively.

Do you not want it enough that it should be forbidden for anyone?

Maybe I come from a different culture (British) but it’s fairly common for people to find something they like about someone else and then comment on it. That can be appearance or other things.

For instance I was at google next last year and I told someone that they had a really nice t-shirt and enquired about where it was purchased. Did I make them uncomfortable?

If I didn’t, is it forbidden?

Does it matter at all to the progress of a project?

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#163

Post by gbmor »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #131

For years I lived in FreeBSD world - servers and laptops. I was fighting the good fight and rationalised that having to only remember one location for network services was a win. Then I took a second look. I realised that I was spending waaayy too much time getting the laptop usable (usually wifi) and not going enough using it I bailed for ubuntu and I cannot remember where the network confit is and hate the GUI but…

I switched from Linux to OpenBSD, then to FreeBSD as my primary OS on my laptop, which involved a bit more set-up time than I was accustomed to with Linux, previously. Eventually I grew tired of the manual setup for so many things and bailed for Debian Sid.

It feels like a nice middle-ground. Most things work out of the box, but I still get to tinker and scratch that itch.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#164

Post by gbmor »

wrycoder wrote: post #55
dijit wrote: post #2

I like openbsd. I like their attitude (even if many don’t) I like what they’ve given to the UNIX-likes, and what they strip away due to complexity (removal of Bluetooth) or lack of decent UX (wpa_supplicant), or just potential issues (removal of Hyperthreading) I know it’s probably controversial to mention it; but I’m also glad they didn’t buy into the code of conduct saga that waved over FreeBSD and eventually Linux…

I don't think there are many who send €50/mo, kudos to you! Few of their corporate users give much back at all. I used OpenBSD as my workstation a decade ago and also ran it on a firewall box. However, upgrading the system every six months is tedious: basically, you manually download the files, overwrite the kernel and userland core, and then do a three way merge of /etc. Plus there's a bit of manual work required to…

Upgrades and errata have gotten much easier.

For example, running syspatch(8) automagically downloads and applies the errata patches.

To upgrade, just curl the new bsd.rd from a mirror, place it in /, reboot, and type `boot bsd.rd` at the boot prompt. Then follow the prompts. I do this on several VPSes via a VNC console. It doesn't take long at all.

Granted, for personal use, I've moved back to Debian as well.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#165

Post by Stratoscope »

patrick5415 wrote: post #159
Stratoscope wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it's up to you to decide what computer to buy or not to buy, based on whatever criteria you see fit. But I don't think you're doing yourself a favor by ruling out ThinkPads just because of a boneheaded decision that Lenovo's consumer division made a few years ago. ThinkPad and IdeaPad really are two separate organizations under one corporate umbrella. Superfish was not something handed down from on high, it…

Personally, I agree with the op. If we want to send a message that malware in our BIOSs is absolutely unacceptable, it makes zero sense to give Lenovo any business.

I don't see how boycotting ThinkPads sends a message that BIOS malware is unacceptable. ThinkPads never had that, and never would.

Anyway, I don't usually buy or not buy a computer to send a message. I buy one because it meets my business and personal needs. I've been using ThinkPads for over 20 years, and they have served me very well.

You may choose differently, and of course that's fine.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#166

Post by brokenkebab »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #131

For years I lived in FreeBSD world - servers and laptops. I was fighting the good fight and rationalised that having to only remember one location for network services was a win. Then I took a second look. I realised that I was spending waaayy too much time getting the laptop usable (usually wifi) and not going enough using it I bailed for ubuntu and I cannot remember where the network confit is and hate the GUI but…

And what really stopped you from having your laptop finally configured?

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#167

Post by vbezhenar »

fluffything wrote: post #151

There are trade-offs involved in choosing OpenBSD for a "Work"station, and the post covers some: lack of packages/no proper package manager (requires recompiling with patches from source), no Docker/VMs/VirtualBox/Wine, etc. Other are lack of drivers, etc. None of these issues are incompatible with an Operating System design (or not really), they mostly just need extra work. However, the blog post mentions that "for…

> requires recompiling with patches from source

I don't think that's true. There's pkg_add and syspatch and those are preferred methods for upgrading your system. You can recompile things from source and I think that it's an awesome feature for hacker, who wants to tinker with sources of some package, but that's not the only way.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#168

Post by meddlepal »

lone_haxx0r wrote: post #39

I hate the fact that Thinkpads are the laptops with the best OpenBSD support. I dislike Thinkpads for two reasons: - They're made by Lenovo. A couple of years ago, Lenovo bundled malware in the BIOS of their laptops [superfish incident]. For that reason, I won't ever again buy a single product from them, since I can't trust them. - They're ugly. I find most current laptops ugly, so this may be my fault, and by itself…

I find the Lenovo laptops beautiful in a sort of old school way...

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#170

Post by sogubsys »

azinman2 wrote: post #96
sogubsys wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's more to it. It isn't a "Use OpenBSD, everything else sucks", it was simply "I used OpenBSD on a Thinkpad T420 and let me tell you about it". I also posted about that I tried Linux (Ubuntu), FreeBSD, and OpenBSD on the laptop before deciding on OpenBSD. It wasn't made out of stubbornness. It was simply the right choice for me for that laptop. And I shared my experience getting it up to a state I was used to wi…

But given the amount of steps I do think repeatedly stating how simple and easy things were makes me think your bar is quite low. Compare installation to macOS, it’s a million time so more complicated. If you need a FAQ to configure your system and get wifi working, you’re doing it wrong. (I also have installed OpenBSD before and found the whole process actually quite complicated and documentation insufficient. YMMV)

That may be true, my bar may be low. I started with early BSD and Linux in 1996, and have been happy with minimal, cheap, and command line ever since.

My experience or expectations others may not share. I didn't truly consider that when writing the blog post.

The stuff I complain about is probably less than 5% of the entire experience. So, almost all the time OpenBSD is out of my way and I go about doing what I did with a Linux workstation.

It is mostly web browser and terminals for me, with random apps here and there like gimp or something.

I'm learning kernel and assembly programming and penetration testing, so my use case probably differs from the average user experience, I'd guess.

I'm just a geek enjoying geeking out :)

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