Comment by noosphr
6 days ago
OpenBSD is a very well kept secret that very few people are aware of. As close to nirvana as I can manage.
The fact I miss pretty much all the drama around the latest corporate take over attempts on Linux is just icing on the cake. The toxic slug strategy is an amazing one that more open source projects should use.
Openbsd split from netbsd back in the day as the original toxic slug, so it is amusing to call it a releif today
sorry which one was toxic, netbsd or openbsd?
What do you mean by "toxic slug strategy"?
I can't find the article where I read it, many years ago now, but it was about strategies that small communities can adopt to keep their culture from being subsumed by the mainstream.
One was to pick a set of norms repugnant to the mainstream that everyone currently in the community can tolerate and enforce them rigorously on all new members. This will limit the appeal of the community to people like the ones currently there and will make sure that it never grows too big.
Thus your community is as appetising to activists attempting a hostile takeover as a toxic slug is to a bird.
As an example from six years ago, when the code of conduct madness had just reached its peak:
>I believe OpenBSD's code of conduct can be summed up as "if you are the type of person who needs a code of conduct to teach to you how to human then you are not welcome here".
Trouble is, the people who are most likely to need a code of conduct to tell them how to behave are also the most likely ones to strongly object to one on the basis that they don’t need a CoC to tell them how to behave.
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> >I believe OpenBSD's code of conduct can be summed up as "if you are the type of person who needs a code of conduct to teach to you how to human then you are not welcome here".
Nice.
> I believe OpenBSD's code of conduct can be summed up as "if you are the type of person who needs a code of conduct to teach to you how to human then you are not welcome here".
I think that the goal of any code of conduct is to prevent any semblance of arbitrary and whimsical punishment, which can kill entire communities.
Linux unfortunately has to endure with toxic contributors and even maintainers, and history showed that when those maintainers fail to human and consequently the community banishes them, they go on a tirade arguing all kinds of conspiracies. A code of conduct is a form of checks and balances, and code of conduct violation processes serve as processes to collect and present objectively verifiable paper trails of exactly when snd how those maintainers failed to human, and how bad at it they were. Those types can't simply argue their way out of a list of messages they were awful to others, how exactly they violated the code of conduct, and how bad it was. Thus any stunt they pull is immediately rendered moot by the deliverables from the project.
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Funny, I had heard about that concept to explain the rigorous rules in religions.
Thanks for the explanation!
That sounds like a very convincing reason to switch over to OpenBSD. Great system, minimalist, good documentation, and NO ACTIVISTS!!!!!!!!!!!
There are a few nice to haves that would really help me out with making an open bsd transition. I thought of writing them myself because I am getting very fed up with Linux for the above reasons.
- IDE support is an issue still
- Filesystem challenging when using a laptop that runs out of battery
- MATE lacking volume and WiFi controls
- This one is just me being picky but a GUI to help me gain a better understanding of the security settings or alternatively more up to date books.
- I am not exactly sure on how to correctly use virtualization and I need it to support docker workloads at work
Your points are valid but I'd like to present counterpoints:
> IDE support is an issue still
IMO, languages and platforms that require IDEs, also leads to complex software that is hard to maintain. The only exception is smalltalk.
> Filesystem challenging when using a laptop that runs out of battery
Easily resolved by using apmd and it `-z` flag. I think there's a couple utility out there that you can script for monitoring battery level.
> MATE lacking volume and WiFi controls
One of the good strength of OpenBSD is that the cli utilities are quite nice that I've not installed gui replacements (I'm using cwm). I don't mind doing a few `doas ifconfig` every once in a while.
> but a GUI to help me gain a better understanding of the security settings
I'm with you on that one. But the man pages are truly extensive. And the OS code is fairly readable.
> how to correctly use virtualization
Current vm solution is very bare. For docker, you'll need a linux VM, but the installation process maybe troublesome. It only supports serial interaction, which can be disabled by default in some distros.
>> MATE lacking volume and WiFi controls
> One of the good strength of OpenBSD is that the cli utilities are quite nice that I've not installed gui replacements (I'm using cwm). I don't mind doing a few `doas ifconfig` every once in a while.
I also don't mind doing things like this for network, but for volume this is very much an instant always-there requirement. If I need to mute/lower/raise the volumne in a hurry, I don't want to hunt for the application playing the sound, then find the volume slider on it, etc.
This is literally a deal-breaker for desktop/laptop users.
What I'd like to know, if there are any OpenBSD people reading, is how hard is it to contribute a fix or similar to make the desktop environment's volume control work?
I can obviously fix it for myself with some gui script/keyboard shortcut/etc, but I'd rather have anything be in the default installation whenever I refresh the install.
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Hello, thank you for taking the time to respond.
“ IMO, languages and platforms that require IDEs, also leads to complex software that is hard to maintain. ”
The truth is that I (and probably other users) don’t always have the luxury of choice and a large portion of commercial codebases have a very large number of files. Sometimes, it is multiple codebases at once with a very large number of files .
“ Easily resolved by using apmd and it `-z` flag. I think there's a couple utility out there that you can script for monitoring battery level.”
Yeah but I don’t want to accidentally lose data if I shut the lid and accidentally forget to plug the thing in for a few days . “ One of the good strength of OpenBSD is that the cli utilities are quite nice”
I don’t want to enter and exit a cli tool in order to increase and decrease the volume . Ideally it’s a control in the top right or a keyboard mapping . What if something loud begins playing in a browser tab and I have to change the volume quickly?
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> - IDE support is an issue still
I thought it was about the parallel ATA. And I tought "who uses that still?!" but is about IDEs for programming...
sorry about the topic deviation, but I laughed hard.
Does everyone really just use vim? This one surprised me as a problem.
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You are not the only one.
> alternatively more up to date books.
One of the reasons you don't see a lot of books around OpenBSD (aside from the very small userbase) is that the built-in documentation is so good. The manpages are actually worth reading, and for the more complex services, include examples and additional reading.
But still, the rest of your points are very true. OpenBSD is really not for everybody, but I think that's one of its strengths. It works extremely well for the people it works for, because it's not trying to coax new users into the fold.
Also, you know, like you don't have to use OpenBSD for everything. I still have plenty of Linux servers, and Linux computers, because there are some things OpenBSD is not suited to.
Shoutout to OpenBSD.amsterdam for providing a wonderful hosted OpenBSD VPS. It is indeed pretty close to nirvana.
It’s also behind the times
In terms of?
By behind the times you mean hot garbage for larpers. OpenBSD is cosplay for old men.