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OpenBSD 6.5

openbsd.org

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Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#201

Post by yellowapple »

asveikau wrote: post #96
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.

The weird thing, though, is that 90s Linux felt a little more like the BSDs than Linux usually does today. I mean, the BSDs were always a bit more coherent, but the default install of a typical Linux distro felt a lot less "heavy" in the past. You can switch from Linux to one of the *BSDs and feel like you are bringing back the glory days. Maybe this is a complaint about Ubuntu, or gnome, or systemd.

Not coincidentally, the oldest extant distro (Slackware) is also the one most often praised for being the most "BSD-like".

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#202

Post by yellowapple »

sdfsdfsdfsdf3 wrote: post #10
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…

Odd that you put this on a the travel laptop and not the desktop, I imagine most OS polygot its the inverse for things like battery life, touchpad drivers, webcam driver. Am curious why not make the switch on desktop? Same semantics? Same dotfiles? Do you use the same window manager across both linux and openbsd? Also what's the "much nicer" you refer to.. Please sell me

OpenBSD's a notable exception for ThinkPads specifically, primarily because most (if not all) of the OpenBSD devs do their development from within OpenBSD itself (i.e. using OpenBSD either as their primary system or otherwise with significant regularity), and said devs tend to reach for ThinkPads. So, naturally, ThinkPads ended up being the de facto "preferred" devices for (i386/amd64) OpenBSD.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#203

Post by yellowapple »

badsectoracula wrote: post #113
brohee wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Packages are dependant on certain version of system librairies, and binary compatibility isn't a huge concern from version to version.

Hence the "needs at least" part, or does OpenBSD break backwards compatibility in every version for every package?

OpenBSD is particularly aggressive about breaking backward-compatibility, yes. For example: the switch to a 64-bit time_t on 32-bit systems to stay ahead of the Year 2038 problem.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#204

Post by yellowapple »

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?

> Which do I pick?

OpenBSD :)

> Hardware?

Most OpenBSD devs seem to do their development on OpenBSD-running ThinkPads, so I'd say that's a good choice.

I ran OpenBSD 6.something (wanna say 6.1?) on my work laptop (ThinkPad T470) for awhile. Only significant issue was that the keyboard would intermittently wig out when booted via UEFI (affected Linux, too; legacy booting was not affected). I ended up switching to Slackware (needed to be able to run Google Hangouts and Zoom, both of which require Linux), but I'm strongly considering switching back now that vmd is a thing (since it can theoretically satisfy my Linux-requiring needs via exposing an X server to the VM or using VNC or something).

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#205

Post by yellowapple »

pfortuny wrote: post #134
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 have installed OpenBSD on a 2006 (yep) MBPro. Charming.

OpenBSD's my default OS for PowerPC Macs.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#206

Post by yellowapple »

arendtio wrote: post #120
tedunangst wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The installer is not a live CD. It's only enough tooling to install openbsd.

Okay thanks, unexpected but good to know (at >340MB I would have expected a complete base system at least). Do you know if there is some up to date OpenBSD live CD somewhere?

At >340MB it does indeed have a complete base system. You just have to install it somewhere first :)

I don't know of any up-to-date prebuilt live CD/USB images, but I do know of guides to create them from another OpenBSD install (e.g. one in a VM): https://www.alti.at/knowhow/obsdlivecd/

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#207

Post by anthk »

CameronNemo wrote: post #141
whalesalad wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you say that. I can see your perspective but at the same time the beauty of Unix is that the OS is really just a bunch of files you can see and manipulate yourself. The system doesn’t have convoluted registry systems for instance to hold state. So for me, deleting a few files is as good as or better than asking a package manager to do it. It proves to me that the OS is simple. I think we have become so accustom…

Wow this is gatekeeping if I have ever seen it before. A package manager that tracks all files installed by a distribution of software is an excellent tool, and in no way incompatible with the Unix philosophy.

Unix packages are an extra. On true Unixen, /usr and /usr/local exist for a reason.

Re: OpenBSD 6.5

#208

Post by fapjacks »

fmajid wrote: post #172
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.

You have listed ZFS as a benefit of Linux in contrast to BSD, but BSD has better support of ZFS than Linux, so I'm curious why you listed ZFS in this way?
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