14 ms·

OpenBSD KDE Plasma Desktop

322 points by brynet 3y ago

Erratic6576 3y ago
Also for arm?
- brynet 3y ago
  The kde-plasma and kde-plasma-extras packages are available in -current aarch64 packages, perhaps you can test it?
  - Erratic6576 3y ago
    I’m looking forward to trying it
rashkov 3y ago
What a massive, multi-year effort by one or two individual developers. My utmost respect to this kind of contribution that underpins so much of the software that I use every day
shmerl 3y ago
What's the state of Wayland on *BSDs?
- pimeys 3y ago
  Works pretty well on FreeBSD. I think not yet on OpenBSD.
  - brynet 3y ago
    There is experimental support for Wayland/sway in OpenBSD -current, with lots of recent ports activity. https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=170176226313427&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=170176226313427&w=2
- doublepg23 3y ago
  Some notes here on OpenBSD https://xenocara.org/Wayland_on_OpenBSD.html https://xenocara.org/Wayland_on_OpenBSD.html
- LanzVonL 3y ago
  People have it working OK but it'll never be part of the base system.
  - bitwize 3y ago
    The BSDs need a Wayland story quick because X is going bye-bye. GNOME and then KDE will probably remove their X code paths before the decade is out.
    - ben_bai 3y ago
      HAHA, Xorg will always be with us. GNOME and KDE will maybe do something like that, but that's no problem.
    - NackerHughes 3y ago
      > X is going bye-bye This has been the 'Wayland story' for 15 years now.
      - shmerl 3y ago
        It's accelerating now becasue finally most decided not to spend time on maintaining X. Everyone who was sleeping on it finally woke up and realized they need to do something or they'll be left with no support. They can either maintain X themselves now or they'll use Wayland.
        LanzVonL 3y ago
        Nobody maintains X. Volunteers fix it, companies add drivers. Freedesktop is defrauding their donors, by claiming to "maintain and extend X" and failing to do so. Other people will pick up the slack once the weirdos at Freedesktop formally announce they're finished.
        shmerl 3y ago
        When no one fixes it, "volunteers fix it" doesn't sound like a promising proposition. But sure. I suppose if someone wants to stick with it for reasons, they'll care to fix it.
rubymamis 3y ago
What are some pros and cons of using OpenBSD instead of Linux?
- hospitalJail 3y ago
  You join the social club of people who say "Its not Linux!" I even had chatgpt try to come up with valid reasons and it struggled.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - zilti 3y ago
    If you are the kind of person who uses ChatGPT for such questions, you wouldn't understand it anyway
  - codetrotter 3y ago
    Either you are prompting it wrong, or you got unlucky, or you are stuck on GPT3.5 still and it’s less capable compared to GPT4 than I remember. Me: > Give me a short list of five top things that OpenBSD is superior over Linux for ChatGPT: > OpenBSD is known for its strong emphasis on security, simplicity, and code correctness. Here's a brief list of five aspects where OpenBSD is often considered superior to Linux: > 1. Security by Default: OpenBSD is renowned for its security-oriented design. The system is configured with secure defaults, and security features are integrated directly into the core system, not as add-ons. > 2. Code Quality and Audit: The OpenBSD project places a high priority on clean, readable, and well-documented code. Regular code audits are conducted to identify and fix security vulnerabilities and bugs. > 3. Integrated Cryptography: OpenBSD includes various cryptographic tools and libraries as part of its base system, making it easier to implement secure applications. > 4. Pf (Packet Filter): OpenBSD's native firewall, pf, is highly regarded for its flexibility and efficiency. It's often considered more straightforward and powerful than iptables, commonly used in Linux. > 5. Documentation and Man Pages: OpenBSD’s documentation, especially its man pages, is extensive and well-maintained. It provides detailed and up-to-date information on system commands, configurations, and daemons. > It's important to note that while OpenBSD excels in these areas, the choice between OpenBSD and Linux depends on specific use cases and personal preferences. And then for the cons, flip the question around and ask ChatGPT for a list of five ways in which Linux is superior over OpenBSD. (Left as an exercise for the reader.)
ivan_gammel 3y ago
This reminded me of an old meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-does-one-patch-kde2-under-freebsd https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-does-one-patch-kde2-under...
- Apocryphon 3y ago
  Regional BSD memes, amazing
- sph 3y ago
  This needs its own post. I love that a country's president mentioned UNIX in an official address, as well as that #anime IRC channel. EDIT: posted at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38917307 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38917307
  - mech422 3y ago
    Personally, this is my favorite: https://www.reddit.com/r/196/comments/qgbvah/furry_it_sector_rule/ https://www.reddit.com/r/196/comments/qgbvah/furry_it_sector...
jojojoade 3y ago
[flagged]
jojojoade 3y ago
[flagged]
pmarreck 3y ago
meanwhile I swap window managers with a single-line config change on NixOS
- sintax 3y ago
  after googling for 8 hours because the last time you had to do that change was 6 months ago and you forgot all about it. At least, that was my experience.
  - pmarreck 3y ago
    uh what? https://nixos.wiki/wiki/KDE https://nixos.wiki/wiki/KDE
- rollcat 3y ago
  Interesting that you bring this up; pkgs/desktops/plasma-5 in nixpkgs is 3300 LOC (not including helper/library code); x11/kde-plasma in the ports tree is 1260 LOC. I don't think either effort was trivial.
  - pmarreck 3y ago
    nice. someone clearly wants this to be a selling point.
WhackyIdeas 3y ago
Fantastic effort! I have such a love for OpenBSD but unfortunately have a system with an Nvidia 4090 which is of course unsupported. Maybe one day I will see if I can dual boot this on my Intel based Mac which has an AMD GPU.
sho_hn 3y ago
Plasma dev here. Amazing work, this made me smile :-)
- unstruktured 3y ago
  Keep up the good work! I love KDE.
  - sho_hn 3y ago
    Thanks for using what we make!
    - tentacleuno 3y ago
      I'm very surprised there aren't more KDE appreciation posts on here. It's such a beautifully round piece of software -- customizable, yet reliable and unassuming. It's exactly what the desktop experience, and software in general, should be: there for you when you need it, without making the entire experience about itself. I don't have to actively think about my desktop environment when I'm browsing Hacker News on Firefox, or writing code, or listening to music -- it looks back empathetically when a program goes wrong, or when my workflow changes and it needs tweaking, and everything else. You've made something brilliant, and it's definitely positively contributed to Linux's increase in market share.
    - Ennea 3y ago
      Thanks for making what I use every single day.
- ognarb 3y ago
  Also a KDE dev here and I also love when people port KDE Software to more platforms. Related someone is porting KDE applications to Haiku https://discuss.kde.org/t/haiku-porting-efforts/9032 https://discuss.kde.org/t/haiku-porting-efforts/9032 and someone else is working on gitlab CI/CD directly to the Microsoft Store https://blogs.kde.org/2023/12/20/gitlab-microsoft-store https://blogs.kde.org/2023/12/20/gitlab-microsoft-store
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
foresto 3y ago
> A special thanks to all who support my work with a small donation on GitHup. I was hoping the GitHup link was a play on words that would lead to an interesting unix-related project. Alas, it's just a typo. Maybe next time. :)
LAC-Tech 3y ago
Love the man pages, love doas (I use it on my main linux machine), love that it has an HTTP server in the main install. But the filesystem is so basic that people recommend a UPS just so your data doesn't get corrupted during a power outage. I hope OpenBSD gets some corporate love one day, because that's probably the only way you're going to get a modern file system written for it.
- Pay08 3y ago
  I tried using doas but I don't get it. On the one hand there's some inertia with everything on Linux expecting sudo, on the other, the claims about speed, simplicity and simpler configuration rang pretty hollow to me. Especially since I believe doas can't do things like custom logging.
  - LAC-Tech 3y ago
    TBH I mainly just like it because the configuration file is a single line. It also never even occured to me for sudo or doas to log anything, so there's that. Also, I don't have sudo installed at all on my system, and everything seems to work fine with doas. YMMV.
  - binkHN 3y ago
    If I recall correctly, the main reason for its existence was due to the recurring security issues with sudo. doas was designed to be a more simple tool with a smaller attack surface.
- jmprspret 3y ago
  Re: fs: Yeah it's lacking. But I've never ever had any corruption issues whatsoever running it on (virtual) servers or my laptop for years.
gigatexal 3y ago
The last time I spun up KDE was about two weeks ago on my Fedora 39 system. The tiling was awesome. Coming from i3 and sway it’s pretty good. Not quite keyboard powered everything — maybe it is I’m just a noob — but it was soooo resource heavy. Akonadi was doing too much. And too many things were using compute on my GPU. I went back to sway.

322 points by brynet 3y ago

Erratic6576 3y ago

Also for arm?

brynet 3y ago
The kde-plasma and kde-plasma-extras packages are available in -current aarch64 packages, perhaps you can test it?
- Erratic6576 3y ago
  I’m looking forward to trying it

rashkov 3y ago

What a massive, multi-year effort by one or two individual developers. My utmost respect to this kind of contribution that underpins so much of the software that I use every day

shmerl 3y ago

What's the state of Wayland on *BSDs?

pimeys 3y ago
Works pretty well on FreeBSD. I think not yet on OpenBSD.
- brynet 3y ago
  There is experimental support for Wayland/sway in OpenBSD -current, with lots of recent ports activity. https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=170176226313427&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=170176226313427&w=2
doublepg23 3y ago
Some notes here on OpenBSD https://xenocara.org/Wayland_on_OpenBSD.html https://xenocara.org/Wayland_on_OpenBSD.html
LanzVonL 3y ago
People have it working OK but it'll never be part of the base system.
- bitwize 3y ago
  The BSDs need a Wayland story quick because X is going bye-bye. GNOME and then KDE will probably remove their X code paths before the decade is out.
  - ben_bai 3y ago
    HAHA, Xorg will always be with us. GNOME and KDE will maybe do something like that, but that's no problem.
  - NackerHughes 3y ago
    > X is going bye-bye This has been the 'Wayland story' for 15 years now.
    - shmerl 3y ago
      It's accelerating now becasue finally most decided not to spend time on maintaining X. Everyone who was sleeping on it finally woke up and realized they need to do something or they'll be left with no support. They can either maintain X themselves now or they'll use Wayland.
      - LanzVonL 3y ago
        Nobody maintains X. Volunteers fix it, companies add drivers. Freedesktop is defrauding their donors, by claiming to "maintain and extend X" and failing to do so. Other people will pick up the slack once the weirdos at Freedesktop formally announce they're finished.
        shmerl 3y ago
        When no one fixes it, "volunteers fix it" doesn't sound like a promising proposition. But sure. I suppose if someone wants to stick with it for reasons, they'll care to fix it.

rubymamis 3y ago

What are some pros and cons of using OpenBSD instead of Linux?

hospitalJail 3y ago
You join the social club of people who say "Its not Linux!" I even had chatgpt try to come up with valid reasons and it struggled.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- zilti 3y ago
  If you are the kind of person who uses ChatGPT for such questions, you wouldn't understand it anyway
- codetrotter 3y ago
  Either you are prompting it wrong, or you got unlucky, or you are stuck on GPT3.5 still and it’s less capable compared to GPT4 than I remember. Me: > Give me a short list of five top things that OpenBSD is superior over Linux for ChatGPT: > OpenBSD is known for its strong emphasis on security, simplicity, and code correctness. Here's a brief list of five aspects where OpenBSD is often considered superior to Linux: > 1. Security by Default: OpenBSD is renowned for its security-oriented design. The system is configured with secure defaults, and security features are integrated directly into the core system, not as add-ons. > 2. Code Quality and Audit: The OpenBSD project places a high priority on clean, readable, and well-documented code. Regular code audits are conducted to identify and fix security vulnerabilities and bugs. > 3. Integrated Cryptography: OpenBSD includes various cryptographic tools and libraries as part of its base system, making it easier to implement secure applications. > 4. Pf (Packet Filter): OpenBSD's native firewall, pf, is highly regarded for its flexibility and efficiency. It's often considered more straightforward and powerful than iptables, commonly used in Linux. > 5. Documentation and Man Pages: OpenBSD’s documentation, especially its man pages, is extensive and well-maintained. It provides detailed and up-to-date information on system commands, configurations, and daemons. > It's important to note that while OpenBSD excels in these areas, the choice between OpenBSD and Linux depends on specific use cases and personal preferences. And then for the cons, flip the question around and ask ChatGPT for a list of five ways in which Linux is superior over OpenBSD. (Left as an exercise for the reader.)

ivan_gammel 3y ago

This reminded me of an old meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-does-one-patch-kde2-under-freebsd https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-does-one-patch-kde2-under...

Apocryphon 3y ago
Regional BSD memes, amazing
sph 3y ago
This needs its own post. I love that a country's president mentioned UNIX in an official address, as well as that #anime IRC channel. EDIT: posted at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38917307 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38917307
- mech422 3y ago
  Personally, this is my favorite: https://www.reddit.com/r/196/comments/qgbvah/furry_it_sector_rule/ https://www.reddit.com/r/196/comments/qgbvah/furry_it_sector...

jojojoade 3y ago

[flagged]

jojojoade 3y ago

[flagged]

pmarreck 3y ago

meanwhile I swap window managers with a single-line config change on NixOS

sintax 3y ago
after googling for 8 hours because the last time you had to do that change was 6 months ago and you forgot all about it. At least, that was my experience.
- pmarreck 3y ago
  uh what? https://nixos.wiki/wiki/KDE https://nixos.wiki/wiki/KDE
rollcat 3y ago
Interesting that you bring this up; pkgs/desktops/plasma-5 in nixpkgs is 3300 LOC (not including helper/library code); x11/kde-plasma in the ports tree is 1260 LOC. I don't think either effort was trivial.
- pmarreck 3y ago
  nice. someone clearly wants this to be a selling point.

WhackyIdeas 3y ago

Fantastic effort! I have such a love for OpenBSD but unfortunately have a system with an Nvidia 4090 which is of course unsupported. Maybe one day I will see if I can dual boot this on my Intel based Mac which has an AMD GPU.

sho_hn 3y ago

Plasma dev here. Amazing work, this made me smile :-)

unstruktured 3y ago
Keep up the good work! I love KDE.
- sho_hn 3y ago
  Thanks for using what we make!
  - tentacleuno 3y ago
    I'm very surprised there aren't more KDE appreciation posts on here. It's such a beautifully round piece of software -- customizable, yet reliable and unassuming. It's exactly what the desktop experience, and software in general, should be: there for you when you need it, without making the entire experience about itself. I don't have to actively think about my desktop environment when I'm browsing Hacker News on Firefox, or writing code, or listening to music -- it looks back empathetically when a program goes wrong, or when my workflow changes and it needs tweaking, and everything else. You've made something brilliant, and it's definitely positively contributed to Linux's increase in market share.
  - Ennea 3y ago
    Thanks for making what I use every single day.
ognarb 3y ago
Also a KDE dev here and I also love when people port KDE Software to more platforms. Related someone is porting KDE applications to Haiku https://discuss.kde.org/t/haiku-porting-efforts/9032 https://discuss.kde.org/t/haiku-porting-efforts/9032 and someone else is working on gitlab CI/CD directly to the Microsoft Store https://blogs.kde.org/2023/12/20/gitlab-microsoft-store https://blogs.kde.org/2023/12/20/gitlab-microsoft-store

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

foresto 3y ago

> A special thanks to all who support my work with a small donation on GitHup. I was hoping the GitHup link was a play on words that would lead to an interesting unix-related project. Alas, it's just a typo. Maybe next time. :)

LAC-Tech 3y ago

Love the man pages, love doas (I use it on my main linux machine), love that it has an HTTP server in the main install. But the filesystem is so basic that people recommend a UPS just so your data doesn't get corrupted during a power outage. I hope OpenBSD gets some corporate love one day, because that's probably the only way you're going to get a modern file system written for it.

Pay08 3y ago
I tried using doas but I don't get it. On the one hand there's some inertia with everything on Linux expecting sudo, on the other, the claims about speed, simplicity and simpler configuration rang pretty hollow to me. Especially since I believe doas can't do things like custom logging.
- LAC-Tech 3y ago
  TBH I mainly just like it because the configuration file is a single line. It also never even occured to me for sudo or doas to log anything, so there's that. Also, I don't have sudo installed at all on my system, and everything seems to work fine with doas. YMMV.
- binkHN 3y ago
  If I recall correctly, the main reason for its existence was due to the recurring security issues with sudo. doas was designed to be a more simple tool with a smaller attack surface.
jmprspret 3y ago
Re: fs: Yeah it's lacking. But I've never ever had any corruption issues whatsoever running it on (virtual) servers or my laptop for years.

gigatexal 3y ago

The last time I spun up KDE was about two weeks ago on my Fedora 39 system. The tiling was awesome. Coming from i3 and sway it’s pretty good. Not quite keyboard powered everything — maybe it is I’m just a noob — but it was soooo resource heavy. Akonadi was doing too much. And too many things were using compute on my GPU. I went back to sway.