When did you start using OpenBSD?

[ntx]

I started to use solely OpenBSD (instead of both Linux and *BSD) on my ThinkPad roughly two weeks ago.

Second question: did you use Linux and/or another UNIX-like environment, and if so: when did you start using that one?

I suppose the *real* question is "How long have you been using a UNIX-like OS?"

[jggimi]

From memory: Multics around 1979, various Unices around 1983, some Linuxes around 2000, and OpenBSD around 2004.

[thinman]

20+ years using Linux (pretty much only Debian for servers, and mostly for home, though I've run Arch and Void).

I'm still flirting with the BSDs but haven't made the leap yet. I feel like BSD development takes a more sane approach and the communities seem very solid. I installed FreeBSD and OpenBSD on some VMs and really preferred OpenBSD so it's on my agenda to stick it on a Thinkpad this week and see how I make out. I'm stuck using a few things like Anydesk and Zoom for work that would probably keep me from running it exclusively but I'm keen to get stuck in.

TL;DR: not using it yet but hope to soon.

[bsd-keith]

Switched to using Linux full time 1999, since then I have used the BSDs on occasion, with OpenBSD as my major player when I feel like it.

It does work well, for what I generally want from my computers, but sometimes I need to record, (I use audacity), & create videos, (for which I use Openshot), on Linux.

It seems easier to do that on Linux than OpenBSD, but that may well just be down to familiarity.

[jak3b]

First time I tried it was around 1996. I think it was 2.0????.

[IdOp]

I started with Unix-like probably around 1990 with a SunOS shell account where I worked. I didn't use it a huge amount at first but over the years some things slowly sunk in.

Around 1997 I started with Linux, multi-booting with DOS.

In the early 2000's I started looking at BSDs. At one time I had a usable OpenBSD system set up. For various technical reasons I drifted to NetBSD and had a fully set up system for many years, which I used 1-to-a-few days a week.

The last couple of years or so for various reasons I've not had any BSD set up for real use. I would like to but there never seems to be time.

[ripe]

Linux around 2009 (Ubuntu) and then I switch to FreeBSD (PC-BSD) and OpenBSD around 2013. (Also Windows 98, then XP). Maybe I will give a try to Haiku OS. I am happy with OpenBSD.

[J65nko]

I got my first OpenBSD CD at a HCC (Hollandse Computer Club) exhibition in Utrecht - NL
It was OpenBSD 2.8 (released 1 Dec 2000).

I bought it from Wim Vandeputte who had a small OpenBSD stand there.

[ip6ix]

Linux since 1993, after brief explorations of Minix and 386BSD. OpenBSD since 2017.

[LeFrettchen]

MS-DOS and AmigaOS since 1989.
Windows since 1989 (Windows 2.0).
OpenBSD since 2011.

I tried several OS to replace Windows 98 on my old Pentium III laptop : linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Haiku, BeOS and AmigaOS.
OpenBSD is definitively the OS I preferred.

[sacerdos_daemonis]

Switched to Linux about a dozen years ago. Moved to OpenBSD five or six years ago, 5..5 if I remember correctly. It has been my sole operating system since, except for a couple months trying FreeBSD last September and October.

[jmccue]

1. OpenBSD 1 or 2 years ago on a spare, and was quite nice so I ended up using it about half the time at home.
Why ? I use it to test software I develop at work and for myself. A utility I created a long time ago and use quite a bit was failing on OpenBSD after running for a period of time, but worked 100% on Linux the other BSDs. I debugged it and found a memory leak. Once that was fixed no issues on OpenBSD. Thus I am 'sold'.

2. Linux, in the mid 90s, use it a bit less that half the time at home, and most of the time when traveling. I also used FreeBSD but ran out of space and have not used it much since the 4.x days. And I flirted with NetBSD and found that real nice too, but sadly I can only use 2 OSs on my machine due to disk space and time.

3. Coherent prior to Linux, was quite nice but the company closed down.

4. IN/ix was my first UN*X, a 16 bit system real UNIX system which my Company at the time gave me a license and machine for, ran on an a proprietary 8086 system (10 mg disk). I think it was mid 80s or so. I tossed the machine years ago when I moved (I really wish I kept it now).

At work, Sun for a short period and AIX mostly since

[ntx]

These are all wonderful replies and it makes me happy to be (electronically) surrounded by people that have been so passionate about *NIX software.

I started using Linux on-and-off in around 2007, when my dad (I'm currently 23) ordered an Ubuntu 7.04 CD (Back when Ubuntu fit on a 700mb CD, which pales in comparison to the storage mediums you all were faced with!). I had a Dell Inspiron 1501, and that was when iw* driver support was near nonexistent so I had to learn how to use `ndis wrapper` to get the driver working. That birthed my love for tinkering with computers. I then became obsessed with OS hopping from Win98, XP, various Linux distros.. I didn't try BSD until I was around 17-18 and had a bad experience because I no longer had the patience I had when I got the wireless driver working in the Inspiron, and the computer I had at the time was an Acer with AMD hardware.

I have flirted with BSD on-and-off for the past three years and since I got this ThinkPad x220, I've been jumping back and forth from FreeBSD, Arch, and Void Linux. I finally decided to settle down with OpenBSD and I haven't been disappointed yet. My plan is to experiment with this install, and when I finally get something I like, I'll reinstall OpenBSD to have a slimmer install with only software I'll need.

Right now I'm experimenting with the plan9ports stuff. I'm currently using `ksh` but I really enjoy `rc`.

Something I've begun to enjoy with more stripped down variants of Linux and more significantly, BSD: You really start to look at what you *need* to install, and what you get and just never get rid of. The me from 13 years ago, despite the adoration of "fixing" the WiFi driver, cared more about the "bells and whistles" of a full-fledged desktop environment. Now, I want a shell with simple features that I can expect on another system if the situation arises, and a window manager that stays out of my way when I need it to. Right now, that's `dwm`.

Thank you for your replies, everyone!

[CiotBSD]

I use Linux since 1998, started with the first Red Hat 5.1 in French. My favorite distrib is Debian Sid. For the newbies, I install Linux Mint.

I use currently OpenBSD since 5.9, ~ in Avril 2019, on my personal PC. (FYI: I'm the administrator of the French Community "OpenBSD pour Tous" Project, now on openbsd.fr.eu.org).

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I started with OpenBSD for version 5.7, switched to a -current snapshot soon afterwards 'cos I like trying out the new features.

Using Debian atm though because they have Secure Boot support (with Microsoft's keys). Started with that back in July 2014, before which I used Windows (all the way back to MSDOS), the Amiga 500 (Workbench ftw!), the Sinclair Spectrum 16 and a ZX81 which my Dad bought as a kit and assembled himself. I played around a bit with SunOS on SPARCStations when my Dad was using them to complete his PhD in Nuclear Physics back in the 80's, that was cool.

[jb_daefo]

Probably, Freebsd jan 2004, as it was the most inexpensive way to get USB [ then a new protocol iirc ] onto what may have been a 2-floppy machine.

[hitest]

I started with Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 in 2002. I then moved to Red Hat 9, then Slackware 10.0 in 2004. I'm running Slackware64-current today.
I ran FreeBSD 5.x up until FreeBSD 12.1. I stopped running FreeBSD. I started running OpenBSD 5.0 in 2011.
I'm currently running OpenBSD 6.6 on this Lenovo T410 ThinkPad.

[acampbell]

I got my first PC in 1992 (replacing an Amstrad PCW!). It came with Windows 3.0 but I didn't see the point of that and stuck with DOS.

I began to experiment with Linux in about 1995, starting with Redhat, then Debian, and finally Arch (said to be the most Unix-like distro). Arch's KISS philosophy suited me and it's still my guiding principle, so no DE, only a tiling WM (spectrwm), and a general quest for simplicity everywhere.

This attitude prompted me to look into UNIX. I dabbled with FreeBSD a couple of times but always went back to Linux in the end. In 2014 I tried OBSD out of curiosity and became progressively drawn in. Six months later I started to use -current.

I kept linux on one old laptop for a time in order to have access to Skype and Adobe Flash, but I no longer use those (and I believe they don't work now on Linux anyway). For the last 5 years I've had only OBSD on all my computers (desktop plus 3 laptops).

I've no thought of trying anything else now. But I might not have made it on OBSD but for the kind help and patience of people on this list, so this is my opportunity to say thank you all very much indeed!

[shep]

My first linux exposure was on an out-of-town job working night-shift in a large city. I filled my nights off installing Mandrake to a laptop. I did not learn much but saw potential and move to Slackware. Learned a lot with Slackware including compiling from source.

First tried OpenBSD 3.8, I was attracted to the minimal base install, the focus on security and clean code and being to easily install just what I needed.

I'm temporarily using Debian 10 from a minimal netinstall for hardware reasons - my AMD ryzen 2200G worked but had some OpenBSD 6.6 quirks that affected day-to-day use. It appears these have been addressed and I plan to go back to OpenBSD on 6.7 release.

For those interested in a Linux that Keeps it Simple, Crux linux is worth a look. No installer - partition the disk, chroot, extract the sets, configure/build your kernel and edit the BSD style init scripts. It has an impressive,yet simple ports system. You can easily adapt Linux from scratch, Arch and Slackware build scripts into Crux ports.

[TheTKS]

A late bloomer here. First used OpenBSD 6.2 in early 2017.

After 36 years on Commodore and then DOS/Windows, a nasty Windows Oct 2016 update puke finally aggravated me enough to convince me to look for an alternative on my home machines.

I'd heard of Linux but never given it much thought. I'd never heard of BSD.

By late 2016 I started on what seems a typical path: distro hopping from noob friendly through more involved Linux distros, discovered that BSDs (and other Unices/Unix-likes) exist, and within a few months had installed Slackware 14.2 alongside Xubuntu 16.04 and was running OpenBSD 6.2 in a VM.

What drew me to OpenBSD over the other BSDs and Linux is their aspiration to code being clean, lean, and mean (to attempted exploits.)

I've had OpenBSD installed on its own machine from 6.4 on.

On another machine I multi-boot Slackware 14.2, Xubuntu 18.04, elementaryOS 5.1 and Win10 (I still use one Windows-only desktop app.) I use a Puppy and TinyCore from time to time.

I put each OS to work for its own uses with little usage overlap between them. Slackware most, OpenBSD increasingly as I learn more about it. Once in awhile I still take other OSs for a spin.

On a Raspberry Pi 4 I got late last year, I mostly run SlackwareARM -current, occasionally Raspbian, but if OpenBSD support comes to it, that will almost certainly be my next new OS/hardware combination.

TKS