hd99
I do on two of my mostly used laptops, plus a ThinkPad T42 (ca 2006 32-bit) and have set it up on my mothers desktop (she is very “handicapped” when it comes to technology.
I also have several arm32/64 SBC waiting to serve me with OpenBSD.
Laptop one is a Dell Latitude 5480 - my most modern one. It runs like a breeze!
Nr two is a cheaper Lenovo IdeaPad S210 with a touchscreen (I think it is the same as this one). Touch screen works perfectly, but no WiFi driver. I use a dongle or wired.
EDIT: I run - CURRENT on all of them. (I.e. the “nightly” or development version.)
I started out my Free Software OS journey with Quirky Linux - very minimal Linux running persistent from a USB-stick so I was interested in effective resource use from the get go. Had a very weak Samsung laptop - even for the time.
Then my UNIX interest was peaked when I found a book at my library which was given away because they deemed it outdated(!): Using UNIX from around 1990. I was obsessed!
After a long Linux distro-hopping trip I finally tried installing a BSD: I went with NetBSD (on that T42), but it failed to launch the installer (boot-loop), so my 2nd choice was OpenBSD - and I fell in love!
Linux people do what they do because they hate Microsoft. We do what we do because we love Unix. - Theo de Raadt, creator of OpenBSD
It was so small and simple, meticulously correct (which has the benefit of making it more secure), minimum attack surface (ripping out things that doesn’t meet the standard like the Bluetooth stack and Linux emulation layer), fantastic care is given it’s documentation, highly user friendly (but UNIX is picky about who its friends are 😉 )
The developers clearly use it themselves which is reflected in this, and many more reasons...
Oh! And the license (a gift without strings attached, unlike the GPLs) and avoidance of GNU!
I come across issues all the time, but I am determined to get to the bottom of them and slowly and steadily get to know this system deeper and better. F.x. connecting to open access points (public Wi-Fi) and accessing their login page. Sometimes sound is gone, sometimes upgrades would 404 - but I conquer these issues usually!
These problems most of the time had the solutions in plain sight: the docs! But I found them through different paths. Blog posts, Reddits, Telegram chats, YouTubes, etc.
Now I’m more confident to go directly to the FAQ, man pages, official mailing lists first! 😎
Other people:
I DO want people to see my “strange” OS. I prefer using the built in CWM or virtual consoles and get a few looks and comments (“Look! A hacker!” 😂), but most people don’t care. My girlfriend didn’t even notice when I tried XFCE compared to cwm.
My mom was given Linux Lite before OpenBSD (both use XFCE) - and I set it up to look and feel the same. To her it’s all the same 😅
To me it’s more fun to maintain + I sleep better at night.
If people are interested in technology at all I am happy to talk about it’s qualities (usually compared to Linux), also defend it in the comment sections and chat groups online 🤓. From GNU-lovers usually.
Some think they need the fancy, shiny, heavy, popular technologies when hosting servers and such. They get scared with lesser known and less “GUIy” interfaces, ie configuration files.
My 2 cents (or 200 dollars 🤭).
I encourage those of you curious to cross the barrier over to BSD-land - it’s probably not as dangerous as you might fear!
Solene’s quick intro to OpenBSD
PS: I’m also very fascinated by illumos illumos.org which is a non-BSD Unix.
