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Yes. I've commented on this sort of thing before, but my preference for OpenBSD over other things really boils down to the Just Works factor, and the simplicity
by Mordak 12y ago
Yes. I've commented on this sort of thing before, but my preference for OpenBSD over other things really boils down to the Just Works factor, and the simplicity and transparency of the system. I usually find that getting things going on OpenBSD is straightforward and well documented, which saves me time and aggravation. The offline factor is handy for my work, and OpenBSD really shines here.
I think the more interesting question is why OpenBSD over Linux (which distro?) or FreeBSD. For me, this comes down to preference for simplicity, an absence of weird abstractions over top of simple things like networking, and confidence in the quality of the base system. I like FreeBSD and happily use it in several instances (freebsd-update is pretty great for online updating), but have had very mixed results with Linux systems (mostly debian and ubuntu). Sometimes things work, and sometimes I waste hours trolling through internet forums trying to figure out how to make it do what I want.
Really though, if you want to know what the difference is, you should just try it. Pull down the ISO, fire up a VM, do the install, and then try to get some work done. Take the time to read the man pages for afterboot, pkg_add and rc.conf.local, and you'll be on your way. The worst that could happen is you don't like it..
- atmosx 12y agoHm, my only problem with my FreeBSD VPS is that ruby is terribly slow... I think it's the VM that slows down the ruby interpreter. Other than that, as you said BSD is way easier to maintain and configure because of it's clarity and documentation compared to Linux. On the other hand you can find documentation for Fedora and Ubuntu server in terms of blog-posts for just about everything.
- ezequiel-garzon 12y agoThanks for such a thorough comment. What web browser do you use? Does it involve building from source? Ports? Thanks and cheers!
- Mordak 12y agoMost of my work is server side (vim!), but on a client I just install firefox-esr with pkg_add. If there's a security update that I think I need, I'll 'make package' on the -stable branch in ports, and install that package wherever I need it. The -current branch keeps up to date with firefox pretty well if you want all the new features, but -current tends to move faster than I'm willing to keep up with.
- click170 12y agoCuriously, the reasons that you use OpenBSD are the reasons that I use Linux, it Just Works for me and I've had problems when trying to use BSD. As I talk to more people about it, there seems to be a growing pattern that, it's just whatever system you grew up with is the one you're most comfortable with, and is the one you're most likely to use going forward.
- imanaccount247 12y agoI grew up with linux. Back when slackware was king. I've always found it to be a constant source of irritations and problems. I tried out openbsd in 2001 or so and immediately jumped ship. And since then linux and most distros built on it have only gotten more complex, while openbsd has not. There is definitely more to it than "whatever people are used to".