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To everyone thinking about trying Debian... Normally I run OpenBSD everywhere but I've got a Debian laptop that's nice to use. It's great to try other systems

by Panino 8y ago

To everyone thinking about trying Debian... Normally I run OpenBSD everywhere but I've got a Debian laptop that's nice to use. It's great to try other systems! Even if you're die-hard in favor of something, trying something else will enrich your appreciation or even make you fall in love with it again. Or it could make you realize you've been missing out on some things that are actually pretty cool. And if you're a hacker then maybe you'll just add the missing features. :-) I've been using OpenBSD for almost 20 years so it's sort of a lifelong friend. Even something as amazing as pledge/unveil don't bring me back to that "first time" magic, although I gotta say they bring me pretty close. Some 3rd party software that comes with Debian is newer than that in OpenBSD, and sometimes it's the other way around. Some things are nicer in Debian, like the GUI wifi selection is pretty handy. OpenBSD has excellent wifi support under the hood but no paint job if that makes sense. So at least for a laptop that I'm carrying all over the place, Debian's wifi is pretty great. You should try Debian! And OpenBSD, and Haiku, and ReactOS, or whatever has your curiosity. These days it's comically easy to try a new OS. Even if computers weren't historically cheap, they're so overpowered that you can emulate them and run multiple virtual machines on a single box. "There's never been a better time than now!" I'll probably try VOID Linux next. Definitely give Debian a spin.

imcs 8y ago
When you say Debian has nicer wifi UI than OpenBSD, isn't that dependent on the DE? You never mentioned which DEs you use. If you run the same DE on both, does it look noticeably different?
- bubblethink 8y ago
  I think nicer in this case means just having one. OpenBSD doesn't have one at all (unless you count cli as UI).
  - Crestwave 8y ago
    > (unless you count cli as UI) It certainly is. But it isn't a GUI, which is what OP said.
btgeekboy 8y ago
I picked up an off-lease Lenovo T430 years ago to tinker with. It's been fun trying out various distros on it without having to worry about what's on other disks, or VM nonsense. I paid ~$300 for it probably 4 years ago, and it's definitely worth keeping around for a few more.
adetrest 8y ago
WiFi support in openbsd? That's the only thing keeping me away from considering openbsd as my daily os: I thought there was no way to get anything else than 802.11n cards to work with it (so, no 5ghz or ac). Has that changed and I missed it? Could you elaborate?

by Panino 8y ago

imcs 8y ago

When you say Debian has nicer wifi UI than OpenBSD, isn't that dependent on the DE? You never mentioned which DEs you use. If you run the same DE on both, does it look noticeably different?

bubblethink 8y ago
I think nicer in this case means just having one. OpenBSD doesn't have one at all (unless you count cli as UI).
- Crestwave 8y ago
  > (unless you count cli as UI) It certainly is. But it isn't a GUI, which is what OP said.

btgeekboy 8y ago

I picked up an off-lease Lenovo T430 years ago to tinker with. It's been fun trying out various distros on it without having to worry about what's on other disks, or VM nonsense. I paid ~$300 for it probably 4 years ago, and it's definitely worth keeping around for a few more.

adetrest 8y ago

WiFi support in openbsd? That's the only thing keeping me away from considering openbsd as my daily os: I thought there was no way to get anything else than 802.11n cards to work with it (so, no 5ghz or ac). Has that changed and I missed it? Could you elaborate?