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OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

sogubsys.com

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Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#21

Post by _x5tx »

dmm wrote: post #17
_x5tx wrote: post #13

I tried openbsd in my thinkpad x220. IDK if the processor only make a huge difference (mine being core i3 2.1ghz), but what I saw was a slow system experience, opening firefox for the first time (after boot) took a decade. I would experience slugishness everytime I closed a tab. And I was using cwm which is supposed to be even more lightweight than xfce4. I'm upgrading my motherboard to have the same processor as the…

Were you using a traditional spinning rust hard drive? OpenBSD is basically unusable without an SSD because of the filesystem they use.

I was using an Intel 80gb ssd msata

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#22

Post by blackhaz »

sogubsys wrote: post #6
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #4

>Speed is Stellar >Speed is not a concern for me. Is he saying that speed isn't a concern for him in general ? If so, why mention that the speed is stellar, then? Or is he saying that the system is so light in general that he doesn't suspect speed will become a problem down the line?

You're right, my mistake in communication there. Speed is not a concern for me because it is fast for everything I use the laptop for. I didn't hit snags where things were slow. I'll update the post later for clarity. Thank you for pointing it out.

Great stuff. Also a big fan of OpenBSD, but what put me off eventually is lack of VMs, Wine and... speed. On Thinkpad T410 (ancient) it was noticeably slower than FreeBSD almost on any task, especially video playback in the browser. Not really related to the file system use. Perhaps, the effect is not as pronounced on CPUs of these days. Software selection was also a little claustrophobic.

I'm now using FreeBSD as my main machine for almost a year - really happy with the outcome, but even there some areas, like neural networks for example, are difficult. (But Keras and Theano are there!)

In many aspects OpenBSD was amazing. It needed very little tinkering with to get running properly, configs and ps ax were super-clean. Amazing environment.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#23

Post by edwintorok »

dmm wrote: post #17
_x5tx wrote: post #13

I tried openbsd in my thinkpad x220. IDK if the processor only make a huge difference (mine being core i3 2.1ghz), but what I saw was a slow system experience, opening firefox for the first time (after boot) took a decade. I would experience slugishness everytime I closed a tab. And I was using cwm which is supposed to be even more lightweight than xfce4. I'm upgrading my motherboard to have the same processor as the…

Were you using a traditional spinning rust hard drive? OpenBSD is basically unusable without an SSD because of the filesystem they use.

I think you need to enable Soft Updates: https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq14.html#SoftUpdates I don't know why it is not done by default, running without soft updates feels like using a filesystem without a journal.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#24

Post by edwintorok »

blackhaz wrote: post #22
sogubsys wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, my mistake in communication there. Speed is not a concern for me because it is fast for everything I use the laptop for. I didn't hit snags where things were slow. I'll update the post later for clarity. Thank you for pointing it out.

Great stuff. Also a big fan of OpenBSD, but what put me off eventually is lack of VMs, Wine and... speed. On Thinkpad T410 (ancient) it was noticeably slower than FreeBSD almost on any task, especially video playback in the browser. Not really related to the file system use. Perhaps, the effect is not as pronounced on CPUs of these days. Software selection was also a little claustrophobic. I'm now using FreeBSD as my…

There is some work done about VMs: https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq16.html

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#25

Post by sogubsys »

_x5tx wrote: post #13

I tried openbsd in my thinkpad x220. IDK if the processor only make a huge difference (mine being core i3 2.1ghz), but what I saw was a slow system experience, opening firefox for the first time (after boot) took a decade. I would experience slugishness everytime I closed a tab. And I was using cwm which is supposed to be even more lightweight than xfce4. I'm upgrading my motherboard to have the same processor as the…

I wish I knew more about the specifics of the hardware differences. Thinkpads are new to me. I just discovered the Thinkpad subreddit several days ago, so accidental sub-community of old Thinkpad folks, but haven't dove into the details of hardware upgrades (like IPS screen!).

I was looking for a cheap replacement to my Samsung R580, and found that T420 laptop online on eBay. It had good specs and was priced well (I had to order a new battery that came in today). Originally, I was thinking if it didn't work out, it would hold me over until I decided what higher end would work better (like Matebook or Dell XPS), but the T420 seems to be alright for me. The keyboard is incredible.

Firefox does get sluggish with like 20+ tabs open though. I did start making modifications to it based off https://www.privacytools.io/browsers/ so may that helps (disabling canvas, webrtc, tracking, etc)

I didn't notice anymore delay than normal on other machines, browsers take a bit to start up, but I didn't time it. It is just a perceived speed.

The speed isn't insane or what may be called super fast, but for $200, nothing is slow for me. I mostly live in terminals and browser, and now with Zim.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#26

Post by sogubsys »

edwintorok wrote: post #23
dmm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you using a traditional spinning rust hard drive? OpenBSD is basically unusable without an SSD because of the filesystem they use.

I think you need to enable Soft Updates: https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq14.html#SoftUpdates I don't know why it is not done by default, running without soft updates feels like using a filesystem without a journal.

Indeed, it was recommended by several people that I add that and noatime. That's active on my mount points.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#27

Post by auraham »

I am attached to Ubuntu because of apt, my development stack (python, numpy, scipy, matplotlib, and so on), and i3 as window manager. I would like to give it a try, but I am not sure if these applications are available in OpenBSD.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#28

Post by cubano »

So, you are giving up what seems like your 2 most important apps (Evernote and VMs) just so you can run X operating system on a laptop?

Excuse me, but this just doesn't make any sense. Applications are the reason we use computers, not OSs, and to have to make such sacrifices is IMHO just silly. The whole OS holy-war thing seems so played out to me...its 2019 just use whatever works..no one care really.

Add to that the apparent political nature of the openbsd "manifesto" and guidelines and I'll just say that I, personally, am not a fan of mixing politics and OSs.

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#29

Post by mikehotel »

jamesmp98 wrote: post #20
dmm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you using a traditional spinning rust hard drive? OpenBSD is basically unusable without an SSD because of the filesystem they use.

I'm not overly familiar with OpenBSD (although I do want to try and play with it sometime soon) What filesystem does it use?

FFS (Fast File System) or FFS2 (Enhanced Fast File System)

https://man.openbsd.org/newfs.8#O

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_File_System

Re: OpenBSD Is Now My Workstation

#30

Post by orbifold »

dijit wrote: post #15
cpach wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that you don’t like regarding CoC?

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.
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