OpenBSD? Anything I should know first?
 

I am a Linux user looking for something to teach me something in a new OS and have been curious about this BSD flavor for quite a while. Keep in mind I did say user and not coder or programmer. Just a proficient user.

In the modern day it seems network management is relevant info and BSD has a very good rep for that whereas Ubuntu has been reminding me more and more of Android as time goes on making it a headache to secure with my level of knowledge. Its been good, but Its time to move on.

I actually downloaded SUSE and was almost ready to go but forums suggest SUSE is GUI-centric meaning I doubt I'd learn much from it. I need the CL practice. Now I'm second-guessing and looking back to FreeBSD expecting teething to be painful, but doable. How painful will it be? Should I self-medicate first?

Ubuntu is boring and I don't feel ready for ARCH.

Can I get some opinions on it? Love/hate? Why? Or maybe you know of another distro I may prefer?

At a crossroads and interested in all opinions. Thx.

You can learn the CLI on any distro.

You could move upstream from Ubuntu to use Debian. If you want a change from the Debian family, try one of the other independents: Arch (install using ArchBang or Bridge to save a lot of hassle), Slackware (use the compatible Salix to get a bigger repository), PCLinuxOS, Fedora, OpenSUSE.

All I know about BSD is that the hardware support is not as good. Its fans say it's more secure, but that didn't seem to help Yahoo!

I believe Yahoo was using FreeBSD, but it was their fault, not BSD, they didn't secure their systems, no O/S can prevent that kind of error!

Anyway, to the question, I use OpenBSD at various times to keep my hand in with BSD. In my opinion it is far better than FreeBSD because an installation doesn't load you up with unneccessary libraries & programs that you may not want.

The last time I tried FreeBSD along with OpenBSD, loading all the programs that I normally use, (including Fluxbox, Firefox, xmms, mc, mplayer), FreeBSD was almost twice the size of the OpenBSD installation, (which is just over 1GB).

The biggest problem will be hardware compatibility, they both have lists of compatible hardware, so check if your equipment works, or just give it a go & see. ;)

In my opinion, BSD is well worth getting to know. :)

OpenBSD takes tidiness and organization to higher levels than the other projects. It's a joy to use in that regard. As a non-programmer, there will be limited participation for you. It is an operating system for the developers who are actually working on it at the moment and the rest of us can come along for the ride, if we keep that in mind. The one non-technical mailing list, misc@, is still mostly about making the OS better. It's expected that you read the manual pages and search vigorously in the mailing list archives for answers.

In that, perhaps the biggest difference is that they are religious about having good manual pages and take defects in the documentation as seriously as other defects. There is the OpenBSD FAQ that you must read end to end when you are starting, but unlike FreeBSD it does not have a handbook. Though unlike FreeBSD, it does not need a handbook as everything is in the manual pages, with a few loose ends tied up in the FAQ and sometimes in the example configurations. Even the configuration files have excellent manual pages.

It is a fast moving target, the developers are always working on some aspect, even if it is culling legacy code from the tree. So I'd recommend following the snapshots rather than the -stable version. But if you do follow -stable, there is support available from M:Tier.

As to getting started, I'd recommend ordering the 6.0 CDs. They're the last CDs that the project will publish, but they are still relevant and contain the digital signatures needed to verify upgrades and such. With those CDs, you can then follow the snapshots, which are the latest development version and where the developers are eager to get testing done. There's also a good book about PF (the packet filter) by Peter N M Hansteen and a good book about getting started by Michael W Lucas, though the latter book is a bit dated already.

A nice thing about OpenBSD systems is that they do nothing you didn't tell them to do. Thus there are no surprises and little weirdness.

In short, I'd highly recommend OpenBSD.

If you don't feel ready for Arch, then none of the BSD systems are any better, au contraire.
They are not being known for being outstanding easy (and, like mentioned above, hardware support is a problem too).
I doubt you aren't ready though. Assuming one has enough time.

Also mentioned above: you can go as deep as you want with any OS.

Thx 4 all replies. open BSD is still looking good to me as a next step. I will be trying Arch, probly' with the helpers mentioned (thx 4 those), and many others eventually. BSD is just next.

I'm interested in sys. admin. and the first step is choosing the right OS for the right applications. Smaller ones with the ability to be adapted to special purposes are most interesting and best suited to "dummies" like me. With the garbage taken out, I can easily find what I'm looking for. I have long loved Puppy.

Installation is looking dreadful, but I'll learn a good bit.

Thx

install it on Vbox first to get an idea of how it works / runs

I would suggest starting with FreeBSD, because the FreeBSD Handbook is one of the finest bits of documentation you will ever encounter.

Install FreeBSD in a virtual machine, then work your way through the handbook. It will prepare you well for any other flavor of BSD that you wish to try.

BW is ultra-RIGHT;) VBox allows many fast easy Linuxi. DistroWatch! Void?
DW idea: search: Based_on=independent, for each PkgMgr: deb rpm ...

'True' SysAdmins know many different distros, PLUS dozens of 'specialties':
web-search: linux skills list

I used NuTyX [yea LFS!] to learn: 'min10files grub' and
tinyconfig no-initrd needed dozens .config additions :eek:

Sorry, no PET (puppyPM) allowed in DataCenter/AWS?:( Work goals/background [?]

Best wishes! You are on my 'dream journey'! p.s. Share your PC config?

...&, if you haven't already found it, http://daemonforums.org/index.php :)

Just a total fail for now so tried Arch with Feliz. alls good.

Best guess is my ineptitude dealing with the EULI issue. I'll retry BSD after an upgrade.

Happy with Arch for now.


Thnx

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/0...ubsd_released/
at least you'll feel right at home
there is a version of linux that uses a BSD style inti slackware
slack has become a lot less daunting to install and setup