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OpenBSD has no equivalent to FreeBSD's support tiers, but arm64/aarch64 is supported with binary packages and syspatches today. https://www.openbsd.org/arm64.h

OpenBSD has no equivalent to FreeBSD's support tiers, but arm64/aarch64 is supported with binary packages and syspatches today. https://www.openbsd.org/arm64.html https://www.openbsd.org/arm64.html Amusing seeing people reacting here on HN to the Apple M1 SoC Linux kernel upstreaming, meanwhile in OpenBSD.. FreeBSD hasn't made any public progress yet on M1 support. https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-arm&m=161386122115249&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-arm&m=161386122115249&w=2 https://github.com/openbsd/src/search?q=m1&type=commits https://github.com/openbsd/src/search?q=m1&type=commits

jchw 5y ago
I mean, Hacker News also reacted to that. I still remember the thread! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26209345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26209345 I also wouldn’t fault HN for being more interested in the port for an OS they actually use to a platform they’re intrigued by. Not to say there’s anything wrong with OpenBSD, but I am not interested in switching to it.
- notaplumber 5y ago
  Sure that's fair, just thought it was interesting to point out the progress they've been making, especially with their 50th release around the corner (6.9 is due May 1st), and M1 SoC support in pretty good shape OOTB. USB works, Wireless, Ethernet on the M1 Mini, etc. It is lacking SMP and a bunch of other stuff, but still.. ton of impressive work. Not trying to convince anyone to look at OpenBSD who has no inclination toward *BSD, but out of curiosity, what's missing for you?
  - jchw 5y ago
    Last I checked OpenBSD lacked any support for Wayland (I tend to use SwayWM; it is supported on FreeBSD I believe, though realistically Linux is going to have the best story here for now.) I also don’t believe Docker runs natively, which is a pain for some stuff. I don’t expect most commercial software (REAPER, IDA/Binja, etc.) to really support BSDs either. I run multiple machines so it’s not a huge issue if one OS doesn’t do everything I need, but I expect roughly all of the things I want to do to require some kind of VM or emulation under BSD, if it’s even possible at all. So for me, the value proposition is limited. It just seems like more stuff to learn, and I’m not entirely sure what to do with it.
    - notaplumber 5y ago
      All true, thanks for answering.
      - chanc3e 5y ago
        I'm onboard your OpenBSD hype train. Swift support came in the last month two also! I'm an extremely happy arm64 swift using designer rn.
    - Klwohu 5y ago
      Don't expect Wayland to ever come to OpenBSD.
      - moistbar 5y ago
        Out of curiosity, why not?
      - jchw 5y ago
        I am unaware of any reasons why Wayland won’t come to OpenBSD. Last I checked, progress towards the possibility of running Wayland compositors on OpenBSD had been progressing slowly. OpenBSD seems to support KMS these days, as well as DRM. I don’t know if OpenBSD will adopt evdev, but I don’t think it would be a giant logical leap unless the maintainers are diametrically opposed. If OpenBSD is unable to transition to Wayland, that does call into question what it will do in the future. My understanding is that Xorg maintenance basically only extends to Xwayland use cases, so it seems like a fork of Xorg or an alternative would be needed to keep things going in the longer term.
        Klwohu 5y ago
        X.org maintenance consists of merging drivers written by GPU companies. The software itself has been totally finished for many years. Im sure when IBM et al decide to formally relinquish control of X.org instead of pussyfooting around with this "maintenance mode" act, we'll see more progress though. Promising technologies such as Xgl were left by the wayside because X.org is supposed to be depreciated.
  - eek04_ 5y ago
    I have a problem with the leadership. OpenBSD does good technical work, but I don't want to deal with deraadt again.
trasz 5y ago
FreeBSD has been providing binary packages for aarch64 for quite some time - this doesn't happen only for Tier1; I think even mips64 still gets them.
- emaste 5y ago
  The difference is that binary packages for Tier-2 and lower are on a best-effort basis, and might be more or less out of date depending on the available package build hardware. For arm64 we now have multiple high-end arm64 servers and can guarantee packages will be built in a timely fashion for all supported branches.

jchw 5y ago

I mean, Hacker News also reacted to that. I still remember the thread! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26209345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26209345 I also wouldn’t fault HN for being more interested in the port for an OS they actually use to a platform they’re intrigued by. Not to say there’s anything wrong with OpenBSD, but I am not interested in switching to it.

notaplumber 5y ago
Sure that's fair, just thought it was interesting to point out the progress they've been making, especially with their 50th release around the corner (6.9 is due May 1st), and M1 SoC support in pretty good shape OOTB. USB works, Wireless, Ethernet on the M1 Mini, etc. It is lacking SMP and a bunch of other stuff, but still.. ton of impressive work. Not trying to convince anyone to look at OpenBSD who has no inclination toward *BSD, but out of curiosity, what's missing for you?
- jchw 5y ago
  Last I checked OpenBSD lacked any support for Wayland (I tend to use SwayWM; it is supported on FreeBSD I believe, though realistically Linux is going to have the best story here for now.) I also don’t believe Docker runs natively, which is a pain for some stuff. I don’t expect most commercial software (REAPER, IDA/Binja, etc.) to really support BSDs either. I run multiple machines so it’s not a huge issue if one OS doesn’t do everything I need, but I expect roughly all of the things I want to do to require some kind of VM or emulation under BSD, if it’s even possible at all. So for me, the value proposition is limited. It just seems like more stuff to learn, and I’m not entirely sure what to do with it.
  - notaplumber 5y ago
    All true, thanks for answering.
    - chanc3e 5y ago
      I'm onboard your OpenBSD hype train. Swift support came in the last month two also! I'm an extremely happy arm64 swift using designer rn.
  - Klwohu 5y ago
    Don't expect Wayland to ever come to OpenBSD.
    - moistbar 5y ago
      Out of curiosity, why not?
    - jchw 5y ago
      I am unaware of any reasons why Wayland won’t come to OpenBSD. Last I checked, progress towards the possibility of running Wayland compositors on OpenBSD had been progressing slowly. OpenBSD seems to support KMS these days, as well as DRM. I don’t know if OpenBSD will adopt evdev, but I don’t think it would be a giant logical leap unless the maintainers are diametrically opposed. If OpenBSD is unable to transition to Wayland, that does call into question what it will do in the future. My understanding is that Xorg maintenance basically only extends to Xwayland use cases, so it seems like a fork of Xorg or an alternative would be needed to keep things going in the longer term.
      - Klwohu 5y ago
        X.org maintenance consists of merging drivers written by GPU companies. The software itself has been totally finished for many years. Im sure when IBM et al decide to formally relinquish control of X.org instead of pussyfooting around with this "maintenance mode" act, we'll see more progress though. Promising technologies such as Xgl were left by the wayside because X.org is supposed to be depreciated.
- eek04_ 5y ago
  I have a problem with the leadership. OpenBSD does good technical work, but I don't want to deal with deraadt again.

trasz 5y ago

FreeBSD has been providing binary packages for aarch64 for quite some time - this doesn't happen only for Tier1; I think even mips64 still gets them.

emaste 5y ago
The difference is that binary packages for Tier-2 and lower are on a best-effort basis, and might be more or less out of date depending on the available package build hardware. For arm64 we now have multiple high-end arm64 servers and can guarantee packages will be built in a timely fashion for all supported branches.