OpenBSD 5.4 Released (opens in new tab)

openbsd.org is a different machine than www.openbsd.org. Why are you using openbsd.org? Who gave you a link to it? Tell them to stop.

To be honest I've been using it for about 7 years and I didn't know that.

I'm not sure that matters either. It's not really a priority and I respect that.

Signed up to agree.

Canned 6 Ubuntu machines (servers) and replaced with OpenBSD 5.3 recently. So much goodness ships with openbsd it's unreal. Bar Theo's sharp tongue (which is usually spot on), you get pf, opensmtpd (so much cleaner than postfix), nginx in base, miles better manual pages than Linux, no horrid gnu info, small and simple base system, absolutely no surprises, no bloated crap like dbus/upstart, tmux in base and what I can only describe as a warm fuzzy "why the hell isn't everything like this" feeling.

Also, it's just about the only thing I've found that can work adequately entirely offline without having to use google to fix obscure problems and decypher documentation.

I've got a bootable USB stick that contains the base packages, entire FAQ (main documentation source outside manpages), all normal binary packages I use, WiFi firmware and its less than 2Gb.

Thanks as well.

I'm going to reinstall a couple of servers this weekend with 5.4. It generally is just a matter of printing out /etc/fstab, doing the install (I skip the upgrade on these), install some packages, and laying back down the configs and keys from source code control. It takes about 20 - 30 minutes to put these servers up (gateway, dns).

[edit] I should point out I've had a box running it before release to make sure that any changes are accounted for.

I use OpenBSD in a development environment. The environment happens to be offline, so the win for OpenBSD here is that it is very easy to work with in places where you don't have internet access. The entire system comes on CDs that you can carry around, and you can easily work offline with a local copy of the package repository when you need to install something. The included man pages are excellent, and are all you really need to consult when configuring the system. I find it is generally more productive to consult the man pages than search the internet when trying to do something.

Aside from being easy to work with when you don't have internet, the other upsides are the small footprint and light resource requirements, built in VMWare support, transparent and simple configuration and system initialization, and overall Just Works factor. The package repository has the things I generally want, and it's easy for me to set up my preferred development environment (xmonad, vim, firefox). As far as actually doing development, it's much like on any other *nix (xterm, vim, ruby, python, etc.).

If you're an OS geek, I don't see why you wouldn't want to have a look. I don't know if you'll prefer it over Gentoo, but you may be pleasantly surprised by the functionality and simplicity of the system. I find it a bit of a breath of fresh air when I get to it after time spent on Linux or OS X.

OpenBSD is made for developers by developers. Everything from configuration files in /etc to any system API calls are well documented in the man pages. They treat the man pages just as any other piece of the operating system. I.e. incorrect information in a man page is treated as a bug and dealt with just as diligently.

http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi

I moved from using Gentoo for 10 years to OpenBSD and have not looked back.

Edit; You gain quite a bit of time moving from Gentoo to OpenBSD because there is no requirement to compile or fix your operating system.

I use OpenBSD as my main desktop and dev machine, with Awesome as the window manager (it's a tiling window manager).

http://awesome.naquadah.org/

I use Xombrero (formerly called xxxterm) for browsing, or Chromium from packages if I'm working with anything on Google.

https://opensource.conformal.com/wiki/xombrero

I use Emacs as my editor and email client, and do pretty much everything else in a terminal.

I used it for a while as a desktop. Maybe it's because I have an old Thinkpad, and I know OpenBSD is being developed mainly in old Thinkpads, but everything works just a little better in OpenBSD. The video, sleep/resume, power, wifi, etc. Everything just works a bit faster, a bit cleaner. It's like FreeBSD but without feeling that a script kiddie will remotely crash or pwn your box.

If you limit yourself to the package repository (about 10K packages) everything just works. Compiling things from source often doesn't, (not different than many linux distros). Tip: use the binary packages.

Also it can't run virtualbox or any other virtualization software, so sadly had to switch to Linux again. Soon...

I tried luck with FreeBSD and OpenBSD, but just couldn't.

Yes, I love both Operating Systems, I love that they are integrated and somewhat less retarded than Linux, I also like their community and development team and OpenBSD's focus on security and code-correctness.

But they are not yet "there" for Desktop use, many applications won't work or will be difficult to set up, and driver compatibility is way worse.

So maybe in a couple of years I'll switch to FreeBSD as a desktop, but for now Funtoo is still fun and somewhat usable.

Before I switched to Mac, I ran OpenBSD for about a year on my primary laptop. It was a pretty good experience but my laptop stays plugged in 90% of the time. I took a pretty good hit on battery life and that would have been a pain if I traveled more. OpenBSD really felt more at home on my server but it still makes an OK desktop. Last I checked GNOME3 wasn't fully operational, but I think it was coming along.

You are really encouraged by the communtiy to use packages over the ports system, but you'll find everything you listed in both.

i'd use it for firewall.

I hear pf firewall is awesome.

I'm not sure you'd consider it "cool", but I've been using one of these for the past 5 months with OpenBSD 5.3 with no issues:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856205...

Also, there are some nice fanless Mini-ITX boards out there with dual gigabit, which is all you need (plus a case for a board and a switch, of course).

M350 enclosure is popular and cheap.

It goes without saying such box will smoke anything you can buy of-the-shelf. Hell, even the anemic ALIX Geode gave a nice boost to my home network over the crappy Linksys I had previously (things are now snappy and 100% stable).

Soekris now has new models with Intel Atoms, top quality stuff as always (old ones are rock solid too, if a bit dated). I went with ALIX instead as I had a local distributor so it was quite a bit cheaper. Plenty fast for now, too.

While may not be the best, but with no moving parts Alix boards are quite nice. http://www.pcengines.ch/alix2d3.htm