[ubuntu-uk] old Toshiba/OpenBSD

[Liam Proven]

On 9 September 2014 16:50, Daniel Llewellyn <diddledan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> *Nit-Pick alert! (please don't be offended - it's not meant to deride)*
>
> That's interesting because, as we should all be aware, OpenBSD (and FreeBSD
> and others) is NOT Linux. At all.


Yes, this is true.

However, using a BSD /does/ teach you a lot about Linux.

Why? Because modern Linux is very polished -- almost everything is
autodetected, autoconfigured, enabled and Just Works™. So in using it,
you don't learn a lot.

The BSDs do almost none of this. You need to learn all about stuff
like compiling software, mount points, permissions, filesystems,
drivers, and so on.

And much of that is actually generic *nix knowledge and applies just
as well on Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX, etc. etc.

So, the comment is true. And OpenBSD is one of the most basic of the
BSDs. It is /way/ smaller, simpler, less-polished than even FreeBSD,
say, let alone a modern distro of FreeBSD such as PC-BSD or GhostBSD.

So, yes, using OpenBSD *does* teach you about Real Unix and what it
used to be like in the bad old days.

E.g. it's not possible to update OpenBSD off the Internet unless you
write a config file that tells it that it can do this and pointing it
to some repositories -- this is not functionality that is enabled out
of the box.




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