I love OpenBSD…… as a server particularly as a DNS or a network gateway with pf as a firewall.
But, I cannot fathom how using OpenBSD on a Desktop/Laptop for personal computing would NoT enrage me everyday. The things I’d do on my personal computer :
1. Browse all bloated modern websites using a modern web browser - Firefox
2. Work with photos(personal) - edit them, crop them to share with someone, markup screenshots to put in docs etc.
3. Use PDFs without worrying about formats, markup on them as needed, fill forms on PDFs.
4. Media - playback audio and video. Without worrying about whether I have the right codecs or file formats.
Wouldn’t OpenBSD make me constantly fight against its opinionated safety first way of doing things?
Sure, one can run Firefox on OpenBSD, but would it play YouTube and Netflix without making me pull my hair?
I can install ffmpeg, relevant codecs, PDF tools, Darktable or other Unix friendly photo tools, but wouldn’t that be a constant fight and tweaking to keep them running?
I haven't touched OpenBSD for a few years if I'm honest but one of the things that did not enrage me about it was that it didn't nag me to change anything once I'd got it working properly. I suspect that's part of it. There is a clear separation of OS and applications. Regarding all the other stuff I remember it mostly just worked. But of course that is within the realms of the particular package actually working in the first place, which is variable probability.
As for myself I got lazy and just use Windows 10. It doesn't enrage me if you turn off all the cloud shit, treat it like a file manager/window manager shell and run all your open source stuff on it. Again that works because there's a clear separation of OS and applications.
When you start mixing the two (hello Linux) it's where you get problems. I think snaps were an attempt to solve some of that (badly).
On Linux, I enjoy the idea that all the software can be interchanged. So there is no separation between the system and user installed software. For me, it’s difficult to grasp the minimalism of those other systems. When you clearly have your system as a rock that you cannot modify. I have very little experience (some theoretical and none practical) with BSDs, but it pains me there is a base system for macOS with an absolutely unused and not needed software, like Chess.
You can install *BSDs with only the things you want. Same like you can on Linux. However, the question of default packaging holds on both sides.
Trying installing the default .iso of Fedora workstation or Ubuntu-latest and see all the things Gnome brings along.. Maps, Photos, IM client, even a bundled browser (Evolution or something) that is based on Firefox but dependednt on the few Gnome packagers to keep up to date(instead of just letting the user download Firefox on their own or shipping the latest firefox).
Even Archlinux, if you install Gnome-desktop, you get all the cruft. You need to explicitly find a way to install just the minimal gnome desktop without all its apps.
OpenBSD however, for a server usecase, comes with a very cohesive, sane set of tools carefully maintained by the folks who ship OpenBSD. If anything, they are very conservative about adding stuff to that ecosystem.
But, I cannot fathom how using OpenBSD on a Desktop/Laptop for personal computing would NoT enrage me everyday. The things I’d do on my personal computer :
1. Browse all bloated modern websites using a modern web browser - Firefox
2. Work with photos(personal) - edit them, crop them to share with someone, markup screenshots to put in docs etc.
3. Use PDFs without worrying about formats, markup on them as needed, fill forms on PDFs.
4. Media - playback audio and video. Without worrying about whether I have the right codecs or file formats.
Wouldn’t OpenBSD make me constantly fight against its opinionated safety first way of doing things? Sure, one can run Firefox on OpenBSD, but would it play YouTube and Netflix without making me pull my hair?
I can install ffmpeg, relevant codecs, PDF tools, Darktable or other Unix friendly photo tools, but wouldn’t that be a constant fight and tweaking to keep them running?