things running openbsd, which are not servers nor dev workstation?

[hd77]

hello

this little question to see, to list or have a glance about the uses of openbsd, outside of servers/developpers...

I was wondering, with a friend, who, which system, uses openbsd, and is not a server system nor a developper computer..
we see lot of that of linux (digital signage, point of sales machines), freebsd runs netflix, and I was wondering, what about openbsd?
even for end users?

[Onauk]

Hello,

I tend to agree with the sentiment that OpenBSD is not the easiest to daily drive. While studying and eveb at work I have to use zoom or other microsoft products so it is difficult even to use Linux.

OpenBSD is developed only by volunteers so commercial software compatibility is scarce. OpenBSD is also really security focused so you tend to loose performance. Eg, by default OpenBSD doesn't enable the use of multiple threads per core. I would say this is why you don't tend to see this OS in many places.

No commercial software means no mechanical engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc. and security focused means less performance so no Netflix, Azure, etc.

However many hobbyists use this OS and even professionals who don't need a lot of commercial software so mainly sysadmins, developers, etc.

[bsd-keith]

It works fine as a regular desktop system - internet, music, video, office suite, gimp, etc, etc.

Presently, I have it installed on 2x thin client computers, that work as small desktops.

[hd77]

[QUOTE=Onauk;74199]Hello,

I tend to agree with the sentiment that OpenBSD is not the easiest to daily drive. While studying and eveb at work I have to use zoom or other microsoft products so it is difficult even to use Linux.

well, even under linux, with a standard firefox, zoom or teams works well..

Originally Posted by Onauk

OpenBSD is developed only by volunteers so commercial software compatibility is scarce. OpenBSD is also really security focused so you tend to loose performance. Eg, by default OpenBSD doesn't enable the use of multiple threads per core. I would say this is why you don't tend to see this OS in many places..

I noticed it

Originally Posted by bsd-keith

It works fine as a regular desktop system - internet, music, video, office suite, gimp, etc, etc.

Presently, I have it installed on 2x thin client computers, that work as small desktops.

on old configs its very slow
linux enjoyed years about the advantage of being adapted for low specs confs, especially running old computers. I have to admit that I tried with quadboot win/lmde/obsd/haiku, and well it's a bit hard to browse properly on a almost ten years computer running obsd, it's getting slow very quickly and doesnt manage tons of tab or even video streaming, instead of lmde, in my experience..

that's sad, because I do like its way of working, its behaviour, its clarity functionning, but at least, on performance and daily usage for common activities (as you quote), a computer of at least 2-3 years old maximum might be a must have. I still run LMDE5 properly on asus x53t, openbsd doesnt runs the same Im afraid.

but on a "common or public/business" usage, I never see it, that's sad to see that operating system is so not known..

[Onauk]

Originally Posted by hd77

on old configs its very slow
linux enjoyed years about the advantage of being adapted for low specs confs, especially running old computers. I have to admit that I tried with quadboot win/lmde/obsd/haiku, and well it's a bit hard to browse properly on a almost ten years computer running obsd, it's getting slow very quickly and doesnt manage tons of tab or even video streaming, instead of lmde, in my experience..

The performance can be better when configuring correctly apm(1) or with obsdfreqd

Originally Posted by hd77

that's sad, because I do like its way of working, its behaviour, its clarity functionning, but at least, on performance and daily usage for common activities (as you quote), a computer of at least 2-3 years old maximum might be a must have. I still run LMDE5 properly on asus x53t, openbsd doesnt runs the same Im afraid.

but on a "common or public/business" usage, I never see it, that's sad to see that operating system is so not known..

On some really old computer like powerpc, no linux is up to date while openbsd still provide powerpc build.

[bsd-keith]

My thin clients are from 2014, have dual core 1.2GHz processors with 2GB ram, they are running OBSD 7.3 as desktop systems comfortably enough for my usage....

[TheTKS]

Raspberry Pi 4 with OpenBSD 7.3 Aarch64 with fvwm on an SSD (which is what I am posting from) and with Xfce on a micro SD card.

At the moment I'm mostly using it for Arduino and ESP32 personal hobby projects. An SBC is more than enough computer for that. If I want to use the Arduino IDE, I switch to Slackware or, once in awhile, Raspberry Pi OS.

Occasionally I use it for everyday use (web surfing, document writing, email.) It's not screaming fast, but fast enough for basic browsing on FF and Chromium.

My AMD64 desktop computer running OpenBSD died some time ago, and I used it for the same things. No hurry, but some day I'll get a new desktop or laptop and install OpenBSD AMD64 again, or Aarch64.

TKS

[nipos]

OpenBSD can be used for laptops and desktop computers, as its hardware support is rather good.
They're adding support for new Wifi chipsets faster than FreeBSD and already support 5GHz Wifi a/c while FreeBSD doesn't.
OpenBSD can also be used for servers where the additional security can be important.
For example the German Mail/Jabber service Dismail is running on OpenBSD.

[hackexe]

I can't see why OpenBSD couldn't be used for any of that besides the software in question being written to be platform-specific and/or non-POSIX-compliant, or compiled for an architecture not supported by OpenBSD.

The kernel exists to orchestrate processes and system resources. Without it, programmers would find themselves writing process scheduling/maintenance code, interrupt handling, code to manually access disk, network interface cards, memory, other physical devices, essentially rewriting kernel functionality in each and every single userspace program that they would ever work on. The kernel provides system calls for userspace programs to use so that the kernel maintains responsibility over monotonous hardware tasks, among other things, allowing userspace programs to focus on important core functionality. If the kernel is POSIX-compliant, software written in POSIX C would run on that kernel as well as any other that implements the POSIX standard.

[rufwoof]

All of my primary boots are lightweight. OpenBSD base + tigervnc, a 20MB or so Linux + busybox + framebuffer vnc + OpenSSH ...etc. With that base I vnc or ssh into other devices/systems to do whatever particular task I have in-hand. As we move towards wifi 7 and beyond, 46Gbps type speeds, so screen transfers will only become better/quicker. I don't for instance install a browser into OpenBSD, instead I vnc into a Nvidia i5/8GB Linux box that runs a browser within a kvm/qemu and that's ethernet connected. That can download, render and screen transfer/copy (vnc) quicker/better than if I directly surfed from my laptop. Want to process multimedia files/video-edit/whatever, then again a box/vm specific to that task is a simple vnc/ssh away.

Others instead like to install multiple things into a single common box/device, that may work, but not tend to do each specific individual task as well as a dedicated system. Jack of all trades master of none. Instead, and for voice comms/messaging/zoom - I'll use my phone, gaming - I'll use our PS5, surfing - Linux ...etc. OpenBSD shines in security, best place to keep personal data files, where if that device/system just initiates outbound vnc/ssh connections, no inbound ports open, then I can do many other things with the comfort that my data files are pretty secure/safe. OpenBSD is also a breeze to keep updated, a single OS, pre configured, where typically once in six months updating is just a < 10 minute task.

Forward time I suspect more systems will reduce bloat, become more task specific, strive to be more like OpenBSD's base/core, along with more distributed processing, ability to connect/use remote systems each dedicated to single particular tasks, likely using different OS's. If many can commonly access/use a copy of a specific remote vm that excels in performing a particular task, then the updating/maintenance of that is reduced to a small number of individuals whose efforts best serve many.