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Old 4th July 2014
jkl jkl is offline
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Default install NetBSD or OpenBSD on a laptop?

I know you shouldn't dig old threads, but in this case I'm just wondering: I have an "old" ThinkPad T60 with OpenBSD-CURRENT running on it. Having tried NetBSD in a VM, I wonder if I have any "real world" advantages from switching. I don't want to format everything "for the sake of it".
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Old 4th July 2014
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jkl View Post
I know you shouldn't dig old threads...
Resurrecting old threads is fine if:
  • New pertinent information helps provide further information on the original issues/questions presented in the thread.
  • The responder does not expect the original poster to comment as they may not be subscribed to receive email notifications, or they may no longer read these forums.
...but in general, if a response is a newer perspective, simply start a new thread. It isn't that hard.
Quote:
...I'm just wondering: I have an "old" ThinkPad T60 with OpenBSD-CURRENT running on it. Having tried NetBSD in a VM, I wonder if I have any "real world" advantages from switching. I don't want to format everything "for the sake of it".
The problem is defining a "real world" advantage. What you might consider to be paramount may not have the same importance to someone else. You know what your usage patterns are (or are likely to be...) better than anyone else. Weigh your curiosity with what will be required to backup whatever is of importance now before installing a different operating system.
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Old 4th July 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jkl View Post
I know you shouldn't dig old threads, but in this case I'm just wondering: I have an "old" ThinkPad T60 with OpenBSD-CURRENT running on it. Having tried NetBSD in a VM, I wonder if I have any "real world" advantages from switching. I don't want to format everything "for the sake of it".
I am using three different BSDs (Open, Free, DragonFly) on production servers and I could logically justify the reason for using particular BSD for particular use. I am really curios if you can come up with a killer feature which will justify deploying NetBSD over any other OS in order to solve particular problem.
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Old 4th July 2014
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I guess the main notable difference might be performance. - Well, the main purpose for that machine is using it as a surf/mail laptop in varying WiFi networks, actually a mail client and a browser are the two main "desktop applications" on it. I wonder if it would make any difference, except probably a different WiFi connection command.

Think of my "real world" requirements as "whatever you understand as common desktop usage, except games". While there's no need to "solve a problem" (OpenBSD does fine), I'm just curious.
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Old 4th July 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jkl View Post
I guess the main notable difference might be performance.
Then DragonFly is your friend. The only true bottle neck of OpenBSD is file system preformance. In my experience nothing beats HAMMER. You will have to sacrifice little bit of security and few network features/performance but it is a fair trade.
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Old 4th July 2014
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DragonFly will drop 32-bit support with the next release, the T60 is 32-bit yet. (That said, DF 3.6 and 3.7 x86 even froze during the installation which was the thing that led me to trying OpenBSD at all.)
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Old 4th July 2014
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This thread has been split from its parent:

http://daemonforums.org/showthread.p...5612#post25612

...as discussion has veered away from the original topic.
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Old 4th July 2014
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Thanks.
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Old 4th July 2014
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A quick Google search tends to indicates that the T60 doesn't support booting from USB, even though the BIOS configuration options exist. You could test it, but it appears to be a show-stopper for using the new OS from an external USB device.
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Old 4th July 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jkl View Post
DragonFly will drop 32-bit support with the next release, the T60 is 32-bit yet. (That said, DF 3.6 and 3.7 x86 even froze during the installation which was the thing that led me to trying OpenBSD at all.)
I forgot that T60 is 32 bit. I have one. I waisted 2 hours trying to install amd64 flavor of OpenBSD before realizing. DragonFly is 64 bit OS. Don't bother with legacy 32 bit iso. The community is so tiny you are unlike to get a help with a current relase 3.8.1. let alone 3.6 or 3.7. I don't thing anybody is even running 3.6 or 3.7 anymore. I think OpenBSD is your best choice.
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Old 4th July 2014
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Which leads me back to my initial question: why not NetBSD?
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Old 5th July 2014
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NetBSD has VESA framebuffer console support that's configurable. OpenBSD support for framebuffer console is more limited (only certain chipsets) and not configurable (to best of my knowledge which is not fully up to date); it's nice though when it's there.

Last time I checked (not that recently), there were differences between the two OSs in the capabilities of wsmoused(8), used on text consoles.

If you will be using binary packages for applications, you could check the repositories for available versions of the applications important to you. Are there significant differences?

Just some top of the head thoughts.
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Old 5th July 2014
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Hmm, except that Vim is a couple of patches behind in both OpenBSD and "NetBSD" (pkgsrc), I can't see major version-related differences which would be relevant to me.

The framebuffer support sounds inviting indeed (so does this article). Seems like I'll throw a dice ...
(Or: any more hints?)

Last edited by jkl; 5th July 2014 at 02:39 AM.
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Old 9th July 2014
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FreeBSD 10.0 - has both 32bit & 64bit versions, good wifi support, (except the usual Broadcom problems), modern software, etc. Might be worth having a look at for you.
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Old 10th July 2014
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FreeBSD - only on this machine - fails to use my WiFi correctly. I tried.
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Old 29th August 2014
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What wifi chipset your machine uses.
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