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> maybe in a VM? But that's the thing. The real benefits from OpenBSD come when it's the only system you need. Who cares how simple and elegant the guest sys
by thisrod 6y ago
> maybe in a VM?
But that's the thing. The real benefits from OpenBSD come when it's the only system you need. Who cares how simple and elegant the guest system is, if you need to maintain a linux installation to host it?
A project on the scale of OpenBSD can't possibly support all the hardware that's out there. And the system is under active development, so there are constant regressions in hardware support. That's fine for John Carmack: he can fire up ed and fix a kernel panic, that's how he winds down after work. But the vision that attracts me to OpenBSD is a box in a closet that Google doesn't have the key to, which sits there for 6 months receiving my email and serving my homepage, takes 10 minutes to update, then sits there for the next 6 months; maybe once every 5 years I'd need to read a manpage and port my smtpd.conf to a new syntax. Hardware regressions are what stop that from happening.
The OpenBSD developers are getting what they want, and good luck to them. The shame is that a little bit of coordination, where they chose one model of ThinkPad every other year and committed to supporting it for a decade, would make the system so much more useful for so many other people.
- hedora 6y ago> box in a closet https://github.com/elad/openbsd-apu2 https://github.com/elad/openbsd-apu2 Mine is 4(?) years old, and has never crashed. I use it every day. If you want something newer, or have 10x the power budget: https://flak.tedunangst.com/post/ryzen-build-for-openbsd https://flak.tedunangst.com/post/ryzen-build-for-openbsd
- busterarm 6y agoYeah it generally works pretty happily with most hardware in modern X/T Thinkpads. Happily running it on my X270. It's missing the 802.11ac and Bluetooth support but I'll live. I bought a BT-W2 so that my Bluetooth headphones will work and OpenBSD handles it swimmingly. There's very little that I can't do with it versus my Linux workstation, at least for my needs.
- thisrod 6y agoThanks. I might try building one of those. But the problem remains: eventually, the next upgrade will crash every time you boot it, and what will you do then?
- ender341341 6y ago> But that's the thing. The real benefits from OpenBSD come when it's the only system you need. Who cares how simple and elegant the guest system is, if you need to maintain a linux installation to host it? I don't think he's suggesting that as the long term way to use it but as an introduction to the system.
- wrycoder 6y ago> takes 10 min to update If only that were true. And they do releases every six months. And you are not supposed to skip one, or you’re on your own.