OpenBSD 6.9 has been released. This release focuses a lot on improving support for certain platforms, such as powerpc64 – mainly for modern POWER9 systems such as the Blackbird (which we reviewed late last year) and Talos II (which I have here now for review), arm64, and preliminary support for Apple’s ARM M1 architecture. There is way, way more in this release, of course, so feel free to peruse the release notes.
On a related note, I recently bought an HP Visualize C3750 PA-RISC workstation, and it’s been pretty much impossible to get my hands on a proper copy of HP-UX 11i v1 that works on the machine. As such, in the interim, I installed OpenBSD on it, and it’s been working like a charm. I still need to set up and try X, but other than that, it’s been a very pleasant experience. Effortless installation, good documentation, and user friendlier than I expected.
Nothing to say except that 6.9 is now the 20th release I’ve used, which I guess makes a little over 10 years. I was a ThinkPad fan boy then, X60s at the time, now all on Apple hardware. I guess I’ll hold on to what I have until Apple silicon is viable for daily use.
Stick to base when possible, learn cwm or find a strong fvwm setup, and rest easy. Linux-isms don’t always translate over, but there’s almost always an elegant solution built into the base system.
Out of curiosity, what’s the actual value proposition for running OpenBSD over FreeBSD?
I’ve not tried to use OpenBSD or FreeBSD as a desktop, so I’ve always worked with the commandline on these systems but I would say the core of OpenBSD is very clean and that is how they try and achieve security. Simplify and correctness. As Thom mentioned, good documentation and user friendlier than expected.
Obviously OpenBSD has good projects which are used in other places like OpenSSH. So even if you might not use their OS people should definitely consider supporting their efforts.
I love installing operating systems, but *nix is not really useful in my workplace, Linux in particular is usable.
Hi Thom,
I just got my C8000 up and running with exactly HP-UX 11v1. Let me know if I may be of any help.
I believe 11iv1 was PARISC only, 11iv2 was IA64 only and 11iv3 works on both… I should have copies of the media somewhere, you also used to be able to request a media set from HP for free a few years back but not sure if that’s still the case.
Nice, I got two HP Visualize, too for running #t2sde Linux, how do you like your?s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB8eyBSczPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHplOJxnIHk
I have full set of original media for HP-UX 11i v1 if someone need it.
I was once flamed by Theo on the mailing list. It’s one of my fondest internet memories.