All that to say, I find that NetBSDs philosophy aligns with mine. The OS is small and cozy, and compared to many minimal Linux distributions, I found it faster to setup. Supported hardware is automatically picked up, for my Thinkpad T480s almost everything (except the trackpad issue I solved above) worked out of the box, and it comes with a minimal window manager and display manager to get you started. It is simple and minimal but with sane defaults. It is a hackable system that teaches you a ton. What more could you want?
↫ Marc Coquand
I spent quite some time using OpenBSD earlier this year, and I absolutely, positively loved it. I can’t quite put into words just how nice OpenBSD felt, how graspable the configuration files and commands were, how good and detailed the documentation, and how welcoming and warm the community was over on Mastodon, with even well-known OpenBSD developers taking time out of their day to help me out with dumb newbie questions.
The only reason I eventually went back to Fedora on my workstation was performance. OpenBSD as a desktop operating system has some performance issues, from a slow file system to user interface stutter to problematic Firefox performance, that really started to grind my gears while trying to get work done. Some of these issues stem from OpenBSD not being primarily focused on desktop use, and some of them simply stem from lack of manpower or popularity. Regardless, nobody in the OpenBSD community was at all surprised or offended by me going back to Fedora.
NetBSD seems to share a lot of the same qualities as OpenBSD, but, as the linked article notes, with a focus on different things. Like I said yesterday, I’m looking to building and testing a system entirely focused on tiled terminal emulators and TUI applications, and I’ve been pondering if OpenBSD or NetBSD would be a perfect starting point for that experiment.
I studied interaction design and was confused a second by why you where talking about tangible user interface before I realized you where taling about *text-based* interface. Kinda unfortunate that terms almost opposite of each-other have the same abbreviation.
Anyway, while they’re not for me, OpenBSD and NetBSD seem like really elefant systems in their design. Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on NetBSD when you eventually go for it. Stuff like this is what I read OSnews for!
I think the notion of OpenBSD being “the secure OS” and NetBSD being “the portable OS” is mostly an outside perception based on marketing. The differences are mainly cultural, which results in different outcomes. NetBSD has a much stricter policy on never breaking compatibility due to a more horizontal power structure, and hardware support is almost never dropped without extensive community surveys for much the same reason. We both have security features that are beyond what a typical operating system provides because of the heritage in research, etc.
I think everyone should use what they’re comfortable with. Even if they’re Windows-using weirdos.
It is good to get out of the comfort zone sometimes. It lets you experience new things.
Some clarification might be in order:
OpenBSD was started by Theo De Raadt after he was ejected from NetBSD due to personality clashes.
The fact that OpenBSD has evolved into such a well-respected OS is mostly due to Theo’s single-minded bull-headed-ness about security, and the like-minded group that he built around it. But it’s also a testament to the NetBSD base upon which much of OpenBSD is/was built.
Thom had good things to say about interacting with OpenBSD supporters but this was not always the case in the past: OpenBSD mailing lists had not been for the faint of heart.
For a drastic example of Theo’s social missteps, explore why DARPA funding of OpenBSD was cancelled at one point.
The continued cross-pollination of the 3 main BSDs (Net, Free, Open) makes them all better.
But it’s probably best that Theo is left alone to focus on his project — kind of like a BSD version of Linus T.
Both NetBSD and OpenBSD have unique qualities that make them appealing for different reasons. It’s great to hear about your positive experiences with OpenBSD, especially regarding its approachable configuration, excellent documentation, and supportive community. These are significant advantages, particularly for those new to the BSD world.
https://geometry-dashonline.com