OpenBSD

[Th3Professor]

The intention of this thread is pretty light-hearted.

Some questions, really generic stuff...

1. Have you used OpenBSD?
2. Do you like OpenBSD? (Why?)
3. Do you dislike OpenBSD? (Why?)

[Sunnz]

Yes I am an OpenBSD user here... I only have started using it since 4.0, isn't really that long ago.

It is more than just "secure by default" which I liked about OpenBSD... what I really like is its "Openness"... but you might wonder that Linux is open source as well!! Well it is the different approach to it... for example, it is very simple to look up the history of the kernel source, just go to the web site and browse it, it is there on the web, inside browser, a whole history of changes to it. Along with that you can pretty much just click through the whole system tree, and the ports, and poke around with it...

Sure, you can browse the source for Ubuntu as well, but that's a whole different story, I still have no ideas where to find the exact source that was used to compile for the kernel that I see on a live running version of Ubuntu, well it is on lauchpad... somewhere!! The worst I have seen though, is that Ubuntu users sometimes don't even understand the whole process... I have seen on the forums where one asked how to get the source of the kernel used in Ubuntu, simply to be point to kernel.org... yea that's the vanilla kernel, not the kernel with Ubuntu tweaks in it. This is something you'll never see on an OpenBSD list.

I can probably just keep rambling for hours... so just to make it concise, I like the approach and OpenBSD devs focus on writing correct code; rather then just simply putting up code that runs and have no concerns of what it will become later. It is the engineering approach that they take that I can trust on; rather than the program by coincidence approach other people tend to make. It is also the logical decision they make that I tend to agree on, they actually reject binary blob drivers for a reason, because they are impossible to debug and the way drivers interacts with the kernel would cause severe problems, not that they are free software zealots like GNU with the gNewsense OS.

And of course, it all leads to the security thing... it is just really cool to know that Linux is already accepted to be hard to crack, just to realise that even the rare vulnerable apps you find on Linux, mostly does not do harm to OpenBSD at all!!

There are things that I dislike about OpenBSD... mostly common BSD problems though. 1, BSDs usually provide Linux emulation, but it is only available on i386, but not anything else, not even AMD64... it shouldn't be marginally more difficult than i386, since Linux is open source for the most part, and AMD64 Linux is pretty much on par i386 Linux these days. Perhaps it is due to the lack of developer interest... it is not a show stopper, however. 2, this is OpenBSD specific, the install CD just doesn't work with my CD-Rom, I have no ideas what's wrong with it, it can boot up the computer, and proceed to partition the hardware and everything... but paradoxically it cannot read from the CD, and so it cannot copy over the install files... everything I do an upgrade I had to put the file on a Flash drive before hand.

[cammin]

I agree with Sunnz. Haven't had his install problem, though.

My only problem with OpenBSD is the lack of readily available software. Not a big deal.

The only reason I'm not using it at the moment is because I'm using it's partition to try out NetBSD and FreeBSD 7.0

[Th3Professor]

I could answer my own questions I suppose...

I use OpenBSD.

There's nothing I dislike about it.

Just a few things I like about it and basically why:

1. It's very logical.
The entire system is set up in a way that is easy to figure out, even in that "non-GUI" kind of way. The whole infrastructure, on a big scale. On a small scale, the choice of applications and special OpenBSD ported apps.

2. Simplicity.
The K.I.S.S. motto plays out with OpenBSD. There is none of that silly unnecessary junk that comes with it. You have optimal control over how you'd like to build it. There are several "add-on" features that are not required (where several other systems do require them or do not give the choice to exclude them).

3. The obvious... "secure by default" and other well-known features.
It's solid. Stable. Secure. Functional. Portable. Standard. Correct. And it accels in cryptography.

There are more but that's enough for now.

The "Openness" reference that Sunnz made, I completely agree.

I'm also an advocate of the BSD licenses... more so than the GNU GPL.
They emphasize "copycenter" concepts, rather than copyright or copyleft, as in "take it down to the copy center and make as many copies as you want." OpenBSD took it another step, the ISC license, basically a 2-term BSD license, only without some unnecessary text.

Sunnz mentioned the simplicity in looking up the history of the kernel source - that's another great thing, specifically in OpenBSD, is their kernel is amazing, it is "correct".

Another bit I completely agree with in Sunnz message:
"...rather then just simply putting up code that runs and have no concerns of what it will become later." (Regarding correct code.)

A colleague of mine recently went to a conference where they practiced penetration. They used various Windows OSs and Linux set-ups, though they never used OpenBSD. The reason was basically that it's just too hard to penetrate, if it at all.

I don't mind that OpenBSD doesn't have some applications in their ports tree. What they do have is more than enough to run a great system, and although you can still compile from source or make necessary adjustments to work non-native apps into the system, there's still plenty to go around just within their ports.

I've had good luck with the Linux emulation, though haven't used it for more than a couple simple programs. I definitely would say install the emulator (and any Linux-based apps) from binaries and not from source. I attempted compiling that from source once and 3 days of compiling, and eating up about 90% of the harddrive, passed before I scrapped it and went for the binaries.

Sunnz:
Have you had any luck with that install CD or a new one?

[lespaul_rentals]

I tried OpenBSD for a while. I think it is a great operating system and made for a great learning experience. I also really like Theo de Raadt. However, I don't like they way there's no automated upgrades for software. I can definitely see the advantages to that, but considering I am just experimenting with a home server setup and I'm busy, I don't have time to manually patch all the software.

[radtek]

What's to dislike? I installed it three times this afternoon just to see how it installed. Installed the same all three times. Not used to KDE, but I've used it before. Top shows BSD is running 60 processes compared to 8.04's 150! Also 8.04 uses 2x more ram to run those extra programs. I love how snappy it is.

A few installation woes such as wifi(usb) but really I expected that. Boot time is lengthy however- somewhat longer than Ubuntu has been. I was surprised but this may be hardware based too.

Perfect? Nothing ever is...

[Th3Professor]

Plus... OpenBSD is one of the most solid systems currently available.

[mips]

1. Have you used OpenBSD?

Yes.

2. Do you like OpenBSD? (Why?)

Yes. Simple, secure, easy. Appreciate their goals.

3. Do you dislike OpenBSD? (Why?)

No.

[LateNiteTV]

"secure by default" doesnt mean much, really. that can only be applied to the default install. which is the base system. once you start adding packages that all flies out the window.

[mohitchawla]

I like OpenBSD's installation procedure. I like OpenBSD's installation documentation, actually.

That's pretty much it.

I couldn't get internet working with it, that is no downloads or display of web pages in Lynx, although ping requests to websites were successfully responded back. A problem I thought I could address to someone on some BSD forums, only to be disgusted with the sight of sex, ****** and pr0n SPAM. That was a *big* disappointment.

I'd surely want to give it a try, but with not much community support ( that's free of spam), guess I'd rather stick to Linux.

Anyway, gonna try PC BSD's latest release and see if it works fine.