OpenBSD has one of the fastest easiest installs of any operating system out there. The doc is clean and excellent.
I've never heard "less is more" as an OpenBSD philosophy, but it is my philosophy and part of why I like OpenBSD. I'm a geologist who does programming in high level, dynamic languages as a hobby and part of my job. My sysadmin skills go as far as I need them to to administer an OpenBSD laptop. The community (this list, for example) will expect you to refer to the documentation and experiment a bit before coming here and asking for help. The one time I got help here on a wireless setup for my Verizon MIFI unit, I got an answer almost right away. People were pretty kind, too, as I did not have a handle on the ins and outs of encryption keys and what a wpa key was. Since then, through working through more than once, I've learned those things. As your machine's admin, you will learn things through using it with OpenBSD. This can take time and it helps to have an interest in these things. Your reward is a machine that behaves the way you expect it to and fewer security problems (every Windows user I know complains bitterly about viruses :-\ ). My 2 cents. On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 8:52 AM, Salim Shaw <salims...@vfemail.net> wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > OpenBSD is for the world. You have to ask yourself a few questions. Are > you an open source advocate? Do you like the freedom to use an operating > system the way you want to? Do you value stability and code correctness > in an operating system? Is security paramount in your computing world? > Do you value accurate documentation and a developer world who pride > themselves on correctness? If the answer to these few question is yes, > then OpenBSD is for you. > > If you like for someone to tell you, how to use an operating system and > don't mind your OS crashing and security exploits, then you're in the > wrong place. > > > > > On 11/19/2013 10:37 AM, za...@gmx.com wrote: >> Hi >> >> I am new to OpenBSD. In fact, I am a total newbie here. After reading > many posts on this list, I formed the impression that all or most > OpenBSD users are high-end IT professionals. >> I was wondering: are there OpenBSD users who are not so advanced in > terms of IT expertise? That is, who are simple computer *users*, not IT > professionals? >> I need to know this because I am starting feeling that, as an average > computer user, I might be out of place here. I was attracted to OpenBSD > by its security-by-default philosophy. Admittedly, I don't know much > about security and I would not be able to set the proper security > settings on my own, so I have decided to adopt OpenBSD and use it for > simple day-to-day tasks, as a desktop OS (as I would any popular Linux > distribution). Does this choice of mine, and its underlying reasoning, > make sense? >> Are there any significant drawbacks to my adoption of OpenBSD (such as > OpenBSD being too technical and too difficult, as compared, say, to > Linux distros)? >> >> Please, give me some advice. If OpenBSD is not for me, I would rather > know it sooner than later. >> >> Thanks >> >> Zaf >> > > > - -- > Salim A. Shaw > System Administrator > OpenBSD / Free Software Advocate > Need stability and security --- Try OpenBSD. > BSD, ISC license all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets > Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/ > > iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJSi4k7AAoJELO0Z/gjFO4kryMIAKifERLcoPeYtYo544vMC+c3 > c18nb275QTLp7bMEl+iZqfuEcRsQ0V4cHfO+IsJ6Z1RAWwwEFu5GtYvWm01KOWk/ > PIdh+A5e3N5aHsu0VWpgBLZeyJPH2x4QzQwOOITNk6ak5mLyVmPr8PkTDV083zNl > /U+NKoOR7o/V+EMcvzrvxd3GQh5TB+pnFaEuqXU7JkqcHdLdS2NhTDy2W7zAp5LQ > EL8GWpBKzN/dXD1vUhRq7c7fez5TZxoQ2tL3IvsMyds7P/BSl21B7tTwUIx/oo5O > hjB9bF13OCy+WXYWDESKMOodMlREm7wUETMpdubCGVOpxD61L/TZCGWcgKGEXew= > =K6m4 > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
