14 ms·

I don't care much about advanced security or networking features but I use OpenBSD because of its simplicity and the quality of its documentation.

zdw 13y ago
This. Simply the best written man pages, and the easiest to understand boot process of any currently developed unix variant.
berntb 13y ago
So... Do you have a link to nice documentation of hardware support? (Not snarky; an honest question to verify my older "machine park" for an install to play around, which I've wanted to do for a while.)
- papsosouid 13y ago
  http://openbsd.org/plat.html http://openbsd.org/plat.html
- cdjk 13y ago
  The man pages and FAQ are a good place to start for documentation. It's rather nice having everything in one place, rather than scattered around forum posts, mailing lists, HOWTOs, etc, some of which might or might not be outdated. Unless you have some really weird hardware, I'd be surprised if OpenBSD didn't support it. The best way to check is to boot an iso and look at the output of dmesg, however.
  - zurn 13y ago
    The laptop department sounds a little limited currently: http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=136255349221059&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=136255349221059&w...
sarnowski 13y ago
This. OpenBSD clean and simple design makes it a breeze to maintain. It's documentation always tells you the whole truth and for most tasks, its so intuitive that you almost always already know where to do your stuff.
SkyMarshal 13y ago
>I don't care much about advanced security Funny, I care very much about security and both OpenBSD and FreeBSD are primarily on my radar for that reason. Nice to know I get the simplicity too.
- rhizome31 13y ago
  Then I'm not sure if it will remain simple for you :) But you should have plenty of tools to get the job done. I can't comment much on the security features, except maybe for the firewall. PF is much simpler to understand than iptables. Rule definitions read almost like English. If you understand TCP/IP it's pretty easy to come up with a simple config. No need for a frontend à la UFW. In my case I use it on a personal computer and as long as I've got X.org and network connectivity I'm happy. By default OpenBSD doesn't have much software installed. In term of user software, you get ksh, vi (not Vim), optionally X.org with FVWM and I guess that's pretty much it. Then you just add what you need. Oh you also get Tmux, which originates from the OpenBSD project.
  - SkyMarshal 13y ago
    Thanks, just need the server version for now. Linux + IPTables + chroot can be a bit of a tangle I can't always get to work. Wasn't sure until recently if I could use OpenJDK with the framework I'm using, but it seems to be compatible, so am starting to look at Free/OpenBSD + OpenJDK for it. Tmux, ssh, and vim are good enough for the server side IDE, so as long as vim is in the repo's, should be gtg. :)
thaumaturgy 13y ago
OpenBSD's documentation needs some work once you get into less well-traveled aspects of pf and routing. For instance, getting reliable external interface load balancing to work is maddening. (The example at the bottom of http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/pools.html http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/pools.html does not work and is not the best approach.) Other than a few esoteric situations like that one though, I agree: OpenBSD's documentation is pretty darn good. I like them primarily because they're sitting in a corner quietly doing their own thing, and their own thing happens to be a very stable & very reliable network service operating system with an emphasis on security and performance. It's a refreshing change from the ADHD present in the development communities of other operating systems.

zdw 13y ago

This. Simply the best written man pages, and the easiest to understand boot process of any currently developed unix variant.

berntb 13y ago

So... Do you have a link to nice documentation of hardware support? (Not snarky; an honest question to verify my older "machine park" for an install to play around, which I've wanted to do for a while.)

papsosouid 13y ago
http://openbsd.org/plat.html http://openbsd.org/plat.html
cdjk 13y ago
The man pages and FAQ are a good place to start for documentation. It's rather nice having everything in one place, rather than scattered around forum posts, mailing lists, HOWTOs, etc, some of which might or might not be outdated. Unless you have some really weird hardware, I'd be surprised if OpenBSD didn't support it. The best way to check is to boot an iso and look at the output of dmesg, however.
- zurn 13y ago
  The laptop department sounds a little limited currently: http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=136255349221059&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=136255349221059&w...

sarnowski 13y ago

This. OpenBSD clean and simple design makes it a breeze to maintain. It's documentation always tells you the whole truth and for most tasks, its so intuitive that you almost always already know where to do your stuff.

SkyMarshal 13y ago

>I don't care much about advanced security Funny, I care very much about security and both OpenBSD and FreeBSD are primarily on my radar for that reason. Nice to know I get the simplicity too.

rhizome31 13y ago
Then I'm not sure if it will remain simple for you :) But you should have plenty of tools to get the job done. I can't comment much on the security features, except maybe for the firewall. PF is much simpler to understand than iptables. Rule definitions read almost like English. If you understand TCP/IP it's pretty easy to come up with a simple config. No need for a frontend à la UFW. In my case I use it on a personal computer and as long as I've got X.org and network connectivity I'm happy. By default OpenBSD doesn't have much software installed. In term of user software, you get ksh, vi (not Vim), optionally X.org with FVWM and I guess that's pretty much it. Then you just add what you need. Oh you also get Tmux, which originates from the OpenBSD project.
- SkyMarshal 13y ago
  Thanks, just need the server version for now. Linux + IPTables + chroot can be a bit of a tangle I can't always get to work. Wasn't sure until recently if I could use OpenJDK with the framework I'm using, but it seems to be compatible, so am starting to look at Free/OpenBSD + OpenJDK for it. Tmux, ssh, and vim are good enough for the server side IDE, so as long as vim is in the repo's, should be gtg. :)

thaumaturgy 13y ago

OpenBSD's documentation needs some work once you get into less well-traveled aspects of pf and routing. For instance, getting reliable external interface load balancing to work is maddening. (The example at the bottom of http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/pools.html http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/pools.html does not work and is not the best approach.) Other than a few esoteric situations like that one though, I agree: OpenBSD's documentation is pretty darn good. I like them primarily because they're sitting in a corner quietly doing their own thing, and their own thing happens to be a very stable & very reliable network service operating system with an emphasis on security and performance. It's a refreshing change from the ADHD present in the development communities of other operating systems.