7 ms·
It does? I was under the impression the only reason anyone still did that was to give something physical to donators.
by jasonkostempski 10y ago
It does? I was under the impression the only reason anyone still did that was to give something physical to donators.
- ue_ 10y agoPerhaps I'm the only person using computers in 2016 who only installs OpenBSD via CD :-)
- jasonkostempski 10y agoI still install all my OSes via CD/DVD but I burn them myself from an ISO.
- Touche 10y agoI haven't even owned a computer with a CD/DVD drive in over 10 years. One thing that drives me mad is that computer manufacturers still distribute recovery images as DVDs, even though the computers the discs are for don't have drives.
- SixSigma 10y agoUSB CD/DVD drives exist
- Touche 10y agoYeah I know, it's just annoying to own something you'll need once every 2 years or so.
- dnzm 10y agoIn fact, I prefer to own something that I use once or twice a year (and between different computers at that), and then store in a box somewhere, rather than having a piece of computer suck in dust and whatnot all the time. Not exactly a counterpoint to what you were saying, but somehow related.
- SixSigma 10y agoSuch as re-installation DVDs
- agumonkey 10y agoI only do to enjoy the pleasure of old ways. Interacting with CDs and CD drives reminds me of when it was cutting edge. Tray mechanics, the speed intake of spinning motors. Even the latency and seek sounds. And somehow, the (almost since it's on DVD RW) immutability. In some ways, the sheer speed of SSD is ... boring when you're not in a hurry. ps: a bit like vynil lovers who take their player out for similar reasons.
- jasonkostempski 10y agoI do that too. I also like to imagine a post-apocalyptic, no-internet time where I have a generator, PC, BSD disk and the knowledge to use them to rule the new world while everyone else is stuck on the "Activation Required" screen.
- PhantomGremlin 10y agoFortunately OS X isn't as bad as Windows. I haven't tried the most recent version, but for previous versions I have successfully installed OS X from a USB stick, without needing any internet access at all. However, the OS X binaries are signed. So, when the key expires, people are SOL. I had this problem, and easily re-downloaded my various older OS X versions. But in the general case it's quite disturbing: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/03/older-os-x-installers-broken-by-certificate/ http://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/03/older-os-x-installers-br...
- aruggirello 10y agoReminds me of my old faithful Amiga, and its 3,5" floppy drive...it made a distinct, almost musical sound. You just turned the machine on and that famous splash screen would appear, then the empty drive would start ticking regularly, waiting for an 880Kb disk. As soon as a disk was inserted, you could hear its typical seek noise while the system booted, track after track...
- pjmlp 10y agoAnd the famous click of death.
- anthk 10y agoI install it from the ramdisk, much better.
- GTP 10y agoHow? How can you make a ramdisk resistant to a reboot?
- clarry 10y agoYou don't need to. It's created a-fresh for you when you boot bsd.rd. After you're done installing, you don't need the ramdisk as you'll boot your newly installed bsd kernel.
- GTP 10y agoAre you referring to the upgrade method described here [1]? [1] https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#bsd.rd https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#bsd.rd
- jimktrains2 10y agoThe last couple installs of any OS I've done have been a few off of USB and the rest off PXE.
- dmm 10y agoDon't forget the awesome stickers!
- groovy2shoes 10y agoYeah, and even the packaging. The latest release (5.9) was the first "official" OpenBSD CD set I ever bought, and I was astounded by the quality of the set, from the packaging and inserts to the discs themselves. I don't know why, but I didn't expect it to be so... professional. I pre-ordered this release, too. I like being able to help out the OpenBSD project financially and get something nice out of it. Oh, well. RIP, OpenBSD CDs.
- throwaway7767 10y agoCDs are read-only, whereas a USB stick has (generally insecure) firmware that can be modified. So in a setting where the user is concerned about persistent USB malware, it can make sense to use them. It's a niche concern of course, but I suspect it's a little bit more common in the OpenBSD community than in many others. Of course it shouldn't be too hard for those users to build their own install boot CDs with the tarballs for installation, just skip the big package sets and install them later if the whole won't fit on the disc.
- soccerdave 10y agoWhat happens if your cd that comes in the mail is swapped out for a different cd by a malicious actor?
- kabdib 10y agoYou check hashes (from the web site) after you copy the files to media you trust, and then any tampering is really interesting . . .
- aruggirello 10y agoYou can find well-known hashes to check your install media with online (assuming you can trust the media because it comes wrapped up in a nice package is a bit naive...). What you cannot check however, is a USB key firmware (ring-0?) malware, that lives completely outside of disk space, and thus is beyond reach, but might have limited (or even complete) access to the system it is plugged to. CDs and DVDs (don't know, but perhaps SD/compact flash/etc. cards too?) are thus the last mainstream media that come with 'no firmware attached'.
- joyfulgerard 10y ago> What happens when a malicious actor leaves physical evidence all over? They get caught.
- justin66 10y agoThe flexibility in the release schedule strikes me as very useful. The CD sales business is admittedly less interesting.
- Gracana 10y agoOne nice thing about the physical CDs is that they're trustworthy source for the release's signify pubkeys (which you can compare with the ones on the website.)
- angry-hacker 10y agoWhat if someone tampers the CD before it is delivered to you?