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OpenBSD 6.5

openbsd.org

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Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#171

Post by pimeys »

ahje wrote: post #159
Accacin wrote: post #115

As a long time Linux user, I keep thinking about trying a BSD variant, but I get hung up on two things. 1) Which do I pick? NetBSD? OpenBSD? 2) Hardware? I'm thinking about an old ThinkPad for programming, and it looks like OpenBSD at least should run fine on that. What's hardware support like overall?

I, like you, am quite curious about it. I've given OpenBSD a few tries and it runs quite well in a VM, but I've never managed to get it running properly with wifi. I guess it's time to give it a new go, considering there's a bunch of wifi-improvements listed.

Make sure you have a supported chipset, e.g. an intel one. Some cards need extra firmware, which you'll get in the first boot, so until that a network cable is needed.

One of the best things about OpenBSD is how connecting to the WiFi is done with ifconfig and how trivial it is compared to wpa_supplicant or NetworkManager.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#172

Post by fmajid »

pimeys wrote: post #2

Been running 6.5 snapshots in my travel laptop for some weeks and everything just works. The laptop is a ThinkPad X200 which is a bit slow for my needs, but upgrading it to ThinkPad X230 later this week should help. I really enjoy how simple the system is after all these years with Linux. I will always continue using Linux in my main computers, but for surfing, some hobby programming and as a travel OS OpenBSD defini…

I love the simplicity of OpenBSD as well, but not all Linuxes are bloated, Alpine for instance is quite reasonable. The main benefits of Linux are ZFS and Docker, as well as wider hardware support.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#173

Post by fmajid »

busterarm wrote: post #79
moviuro wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See https://man.openbsd.org/unwind.8 And also in general, I'm far less concerned about software released by a well-established security-minded team than I am about whatever Lennart wants to ship...

literally, "whatever Lennart wants to ship"

s/p/t/g

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#176

Post by nine_k »

blandflakes wrote: post #164
nine_k wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> about Ubuntu, or gnome, or systemd Looks like it. I'm running Void Linux without all these, and it feels simple and lightweight. Also fast. (OTOH when I have to work with BSD userland utilities that are part of macOS, I often miss the GNU extensions, e.g. to `date` or to `awk`.)

If you're using some kind of window manager or desktop environment, do you mind me asking which one?

Xfce, with its WM.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#177

Post by brynet »

3xblah wrote: post #175

Up until now (see rdsetroot), OpenBSD never had an equivalent to mdsetroot (NetBSD)?

It did, it was just not installed by default, it was originally only available at build-time (as eflrdsetroot).

This just promoted it to a regular base utility, and also it was rewritten using libelf(3).

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#178

Post by ColanR »

asveikau wrote: post #133
ColanR wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just switched from ubuntu to OpenBSD, realized that it's not optimized for desktop usage, and have been happy with Void for a while now.

I would disagree. In my experience OpenBSD is pretty good on a desktop or laptop. I've had fewer driver issues with it than FreeBSD for example (mostly wifi and graphics). But "optimized for desktop usage" is a very vague term with different meanings for everybody. My tastes are geared towards a light X workstation that doesn't add any extra whistles unless you ask for them. In the Linux world the closest I've seen t…

Sorry I was vague. I don't know the reasons for the difference, but on my X230 OpenBSD seemed to have higher latencies in starting programs, and ran big programs like chromium slower than ubuntu and void did.

Driver support is great, I agree. And the network management is far simpler. It just felt slow.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#179

Post by naniwaduni »

jancsika wrote: post #163

Oh my, what is the story behind the piece of artwork in this release? The buzz around OpenBSD always led me to believe it's developed by mole people who subsist on cryptographically secure random donations of soda crackers and water. Yet here on their release page is a big beautiful image that precedes technical release desiderata. Can more projects do more beautiful artwork like this? Also, can I support OpenBSD by…

> Edit: Just noticed that the stem of the "p" in "OpenBSD" is not obscured by the underline (at least in Chrome). That, along with the italic "Open" with non-italic "BSD" is quite aesthetically pleasing. Is this due to a design whiz who got interested in BSD, or is this just HTML5 doing its thing?

This is just Chrome's default rendering of underlines, which occurs even with no explicit styling:

    data:text/html,upu
In my opinion, it's a cute stylistic effect which looks nice in headers &c., but feels inappropriate in running text. An odd default.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#180

Post by zokula »

btilly wrote: post #161
mikece wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I really enjoy how simple the system is after all these years with Linux. I still shake my head when I think back to the 90s and how Linux managed to overtake the BSDs. Good to see they are still very much alive and moving forward.

Yeah, a good lawsuit at the wrong time will do that to you. For those who don't know what I am talking about, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_Laboratories,_Inc.... . For what this has to do with Linux adoption, read http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Torvalds/Finland_period/a... about how the uncertainty around all of the BSD distributions lead to people jumping onto the Linux bandwagon. This got Linux…

The lawsuit myth needs to die!

Remember when SCO was trying to sue everybody over Linux? Why didn't the *BSDs become more popular then?

Linux being more popular then the BSDs had nothing to do with anything Legal outside of Linux being GPL.

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