“libpng support brings emoji rendering in the base system. Without that, we don’t know what all the AI tools are trying to tell us in the terminal.” <3
So, what are the main purposes of OpenBSD today? Where is it typically deployed and what is it ideal for? It seems oriented towards deeper networking, more than a typical user-facing server.
I think where obsd really shines is in the small infrastructure department, name servers, routers, time servers, web servers, mail servers. Obsd boxes tend to be easy to administrate, predicable and most importantly boring. It is a great system to build the back end of your small business or home network.
Personally I think it also makes for a very nice desktop system. But I like my desktops thin, a tiling window manager and lots of terminals. If you enjoy fat desktops, there may be a bit more friction. One reason I like it for desktop use more than other systems is that the software packaging feel higher quality. It is not a huge difference. mainly I have found obsd packages to more reliably work when installed. and those heroic obsd package maintainers tend to put a note in /usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes/ that will get you started.
It's extremely simple and straightforward for networking devices. Setting up an OpenBSD router or gateway is such a pleasant process.
The documentation in all aspects is superb, and you can run all sorts of servers just fine (ports is full of common software). You can technically use it as a desktop workstation too, but I can't point to anything that really stands out in this aspect — except perhaps the strong focus on security.
Yeah there are certain compromises you have to make. Mainstream hardware generally works, but Bluetooth and Nvidia GPUs are two possibly big exceptions depending on your needs.
If the driver source is not freely available and it can't be reverse-engineered (or no developer is interested in working on it) then it probably isn't supported.
“libpng support brings emoji rendering in the base system. Without that, we don’t know what all the AI tools are trying to tell us in the terminal.” <3
Some people (including myself) might not want emoji rendering, though.
Simply don't install an emoji font and local programs won't render them.
So, what are the main purposes of OpenBSD today? Where is it typically deployed and what is it ideal for? It seems oriented towards deeper networking, more than a typical user-facing server.
I think where obsd really shines is in the small infrastructure department, name servers, routers, time servers, web servers, mail servers. Obsd boxes tend to be easy to administrate, predicable and most importantly boring. It is a great system to build the back end of your small business or home network.
Personally I think it also makes for a very nice desktop system. But I like my desktops thin, a tiling window manager and lots of terminals. If you enjoy fat desktops, there may be a bit more friction. One reason I like it for desktop use more than other systems is that the software packaging feel higher quality. It is not a huge difference. mainly I have found obsd packages to more reliably work when installed. and those heroic obsd package maintainers tend to put a note in /usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes/ that will get you started.
It's extremely simple and straightforward for networking devices. Setting up an OpenBSD router or gateway is such a pleasant process.
The documentation in all aspects is superb, and you can run all sorts of servers just fine (ports is full of common software). You can technically use it as a desktop workstation too, but I can't point to anything that really stands out in this aspect — except perhaps the strong focus on security.
It’s my daily driver. Simple and it works.
I'd like to try it again (it's been years) but unfortunately I can't live without Bluetooth.
Yeah there are certain compromises you have to make. Mainstream hardware generally works, but Bluetooth and Nvidia GPUs are two possibly big exceptions depending on your needs.
If the driver source is not freely available and it can't be reverse-engineered (or no developer is interested in working on it) then it probably isn't supported.
For anyone interested in digging in further, I posted some OpenBSD 7.8 highlights over on Mastodon as well.
https://bsd.network/@brynet/115403567146395679