First, the workload would be significant. A release(8), a build of nearly 1500 ports, and then individually provisioning each of the images, testing them, and finally packaging them, takes a great deal of time, as well as effort. To quote myself, straight from my little
FAQ:
Quote:
This is -release. Why not -stable or -current?
3. There are 12 different ISOs. I do not intend to spend the time to build these more than twice per year, with each new -release....
|
Secondly, it was never my intent to use this for -current feature testing. That I do, but I usually just use a virtual machine, or a suite of virtual machines if it is a networking feature. To be clear, my offering permits some OS familiarity for new users, and hardware testing for existing OpenBSD users, such as testing a computer for compatibility before buying it. That it can also be used for "rescue" administration is a nice-to-have, but not my intent.
Thirdly, it's easy enough to install any release(8) onto a USB stick, assuming your destination platform can boot USB mass storage. The entire effort it takes, if you have a running OpenBSD system: download the appropriate bsd.rd kernel, boot it, insert a stick, and run the install script. The time it takes depends upon your bandwidth to the nearest mirror. The process is described in OpenBSD FAQ 14.17.3. It is a simple portable disk drive installation, and not a read-only "live media" environment, such as I create.
Lastly, I'd be happy to share my build scripts that I use to create my live media. However, the process of creating CD9660 read only live media is far more involved, and complicated, and time consuming than installing a snapshot on a stick. To get a glimpse of the underlying process of setting up a read-only version of the OS with MFS partitions for writing, there are links to two "howto" documents for creating your own live media at the bottom of my FAQ.