Guest post by OpenBSD 4.7 is the newest installment in the proactively secure UNIX-like operating system. With 4.7 comes a range of new features including support for the Loongson 2E and 2F MIPS-compatible processors. See the release page for a complete list of new features.
Also in this release is several improvements to PF, internally and the configuration syntax.
None of the other BSD’s seem to pull in much of this work though, and are using a considerably older implementation.
Kinda curious why this was voted down.
Just to pre-empt the expected (and totally deserved) comments: yes, I want news like this in the main column. However, since I have zero experience or knowledge on OpenBSD, I can make head nor tails of that long list of improvements.
If anyone wants to turn this into a proper item, with details about the most important new features, I’ll move it to the big boy column right away. I’d be immensely grateful.
Edited 2010-05-19 22:43 UTC
Well, the news flash managed to pick up Loongson support which I think is very cool, being one of the few architectures that are still actively developed and also using exclusively open hardware.
Problem is, I don’t think many people own one to review it and say compare OpenBSD to the Linux used by default – GNUSense.
Everything else are major(or minor like dhclient) improvements in many areas each of which only matter to a portion of users and I believe it would be unfair to emphasize uhts(4) because you happen to own a touchscreen or midicat(1) if you are a musician because most users have never even heard of either.
I do not mean this in a bad way, but perhaps you should take some time to install OpenBSD and give it a proper test run? It is a great unix-like operating system with excellent stability and documentation.
I agree 100% it is “a great unix-like operating system with excellent stability and documentation. ” But I have no idea how to benchmark stability or documentation after installing an OS. And no idea how to measure an increase or decrease in those attributes over the previous version.
before i try it, i want to see some screenshots
OpenBSD 4.7 on qemu-kvm:
installer:
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/9972/snapshot3q.png
desktop:
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9992/snapshot7h.png
EDIT: One day they will fix links.
Edited 2010-05-20 07:22 UTC
Screenshots won’t do you much good because by default, OpenBSD boots into a console environment.
With a little package installation (pkg or ports) you can setup modern desktops such as Gnome or KDE and make it look just like any other “Linux” distribution. I run fluxbox or openbox in most cases as I prefer minimalism.
Install kde in OpenBSD isn’t easy job. Maybe, it isn’t even possible.
The kde’s packages aren’t updates for a long time.
It will be possible though unusual.
They tend to be older packages that have had a lighter audit so not entirely up to date. These packages are community contributed so any of us could offer to pitch in – in principle.
In the past I put together an old desktop system with OpenBSD and a GNOME desktop environment in order to avoid using my laptop for online transactions.
Details like a configuring a UK keyboard for X11 slowed me a bit; but the package management brought most of it together with a few commands.
As an experiment it was fine but I felt that online transaction security problems were just as likely to come from older browser versions that OpenBSD had at the time.
For most server work I would choose OpenBSD – anytime. For a Unix desktop, I occasionally want Flash and Skype and … Ubuntu saves time so easily.
Given the reason again: OpenBSD would be plausible for me – no worries.
That’s what I expected.
I don’t think I’ll try OpenBSD. I have no use for it at this point.
It’s clearly not meant for rudimentary everyday use.
Like… keep the Internet running?
Yes. That would not be considered rudimentary use. That’s serving advanced functionality.
That would not be considered rudimentary use.
Like others said, it won’t do you much good, since OpenBSD boots in console mode. The default window manger is an older release of fvwm2. Functional but pretty sparse.
Using the packages system, you just pkg_add whatever you want. The docs are straight forward and easy to understand.
I started using OpenBSD this year because I wanted the challenge but I found it far easier to install and configure than NetBSD. I like it a lot,
Have you ever seen GNOME? KDE? It looks like that, because it is that. It’s a *nix box, it runs X, you run any X WM you want and run any DE you want.
Is it easy to install NVidia drivers? I’m interested in trying this, but honestly, I’m very impatient.
Also does FreeBSD come with a desktop by default? I know PC-BSD does…
Edited 2010-05-20 14:43 UTC
At present I do not know of any 3D Nvidia drivers for OpenBSD. The Nvidia drivers for 3D accel in Linux are closed source and thus cannot be ported. OpenBSD is stuck with just 2D support with Nvidia (using nv or vesa driver) cards right now.
There is a closed-source Nvidia driver available for FreeBSD, but I have not used it in several years.
No. FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD all boot into a console by default. As has been said already, it is trivial to install a desktop environment using packages or ports.
PC-BSD is an effort to make FreeBSD more user friendly. Because of this, it comes pre-configured with the KDE desktop.
It’s really a great firewall. I use it on my Mac mini with USB to Ethernet cable from Apple.
Automatically detected, working like a charm and rock solid.
yet? Or?