💾 Archived View for zaney.org › posts › OpenBSDvLinux.gmi captured on 2021-11-30 at 20:18:30. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I understand some getting confused by OpenBSD when they first interact with it. It is an operating system that typically if your going to be getting into it you have experience with Linux. Which is a good and a bad thing. You have some knowledge of the tools that you'll be using. However, since OpenBSD is NOT Linux a lot of the commands are different or the flags are slightly different. So it can be off-putting to some when they come in and for a second go, "oh, I know how this works!" Only to be confronted with less and less similarities as you go.
First off, before we go into the differences. Let me explain just exactly what OpenBSD is and whether or not you should use it as anything more than a server. OpenBSD is a security focused UNIX based operating system that also has a passion for clear concise documentation. I cannot do the documentation justice - it's incrediblely concise, yet thorough. All you need to understand OpenBSD and complete any task is the FAQ & the man pages.
OpenBSD is not like GNU/Linux in the fact that it is not a kernel plus core utilities. Both are one in the same in OpenBSD.
Unlike Linux, when using OpenBSD you will not suffer using PulseAudio. When it comes to audio OpenBSD has Linux beat to hell. Audio is handled with three tools on OpenBSD - sndio, sndiod, and sndioctl. The last being the one that you will actually interact with such as, sndioctl output.level=+0.1 to turn the output volume up 10%. This means that by reading just three man pages you have audio on OpenBSD figured out.
The filesystem(s) that are supported on OpenBSD are what really gets some people. OpenBSD does not use nor support ext4, FAT32, BTRFS, ZFS, etc. It uses FFS and exFAT as it's supported filesystems. Now you probably haven't heard of FFS before now, but have no fear - it's great! So I recommend you have a storage device for your file transfers formatted in exFAT and/or have your things available in the cloud(perhaps Nextcloud).
Oh yes, there's definitely more such as the fact that ksh will be the default shell instead of bash as your most likely used to. However, just because there's a lot more to learn does not mean your going to be lost. You've got this post to help you ;D
The thing that I must address before moving any futher is your not going to be using lsblk. You'll be using things like sysctl hw.disknames, hw.diskcount, df, etc. This will take some adjustment, just make a drinking game out of seeing how many times you run lsblk without thinking.
I personally have chosen to use OpenBSD as my sole operating system, moving away from Linux. For me the reason I am switching is not really the security, even though it is very nice to have an operating system where that is the main focus. I am using it because the system is far simpler to understand, the docs are fucking incredible, it can do everything I need to create content for my YouTube channel, and more.
I love the fact that it is built for the developers and their mindset on not catering to the general communities demands. They take feedback and seem to be generally really kind people, but just because you want OpenBSD to support something doesn't mean anyone will start working on it. The mindset of the OpenBSD community is if you want something on OpenBSD, do it yourself. However, as developers they give you the tools and the proper documentation to make it happen.
Linux and OpenBSD are not the same, and that is a good thing. I hope this helped you understand some of the differences. But if you really want to find out more I recommend diving into OpenBSD. I'm sure you'll have a great time!