On Nov 19 16:37:25, za...@gmx.com wrote: > 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?
You are wrong assuming that all or even most people on this list are IT professionals. However, I think I have one of more interesting stories to share with misc. I started using OpenBSD six years ago. Being a research mathematician one of the most important computer tools for my job is typesetting system TeX. At that time I was an avid FreeBSD user but I needed some fancy TeX features which were not present at that time standard distribution of TeX for UNIX called teTeX. I looked around and OpenBSD was the second (only to Debian) UNIX-like system to switch from teTeX from TeXLive distribution of TeX. Over the night I switched from FreeBSD to OpenBSD and discovered how simple and predictable is OpenBSD comparing to FreeBSD let alone to Ubuntu I had on my office desktop at that time. Couple years prior I started running FreeBSD in frustration with the attitude and incompetence of Linux IT guys after most U.S. research universities switched from Solaris which was running on X client to Linux. But my story doesn't end up here. As the time went by I became thank to OpenBSD philosophy and design more competent computer and in particularly UNIX user than I have ever been in my lifetime. I used those skills to greatly increase my efficiency in performing my day job which became more demanding as economic crisis hit hard U.S. academia. I have never taught of myself as an IT professional until my colleagues and IT personal started relaying on my computer skills to get things done. Thanks to new computer skills I acquired using OpenBSD about six months ago I got a job offer from an academic data mining lab. I accepted the job offer and now the large part of my paycheck comes from doing computer work and more interestingly using OpenBSD not just on my desktop computer. Am I an IT professional? Not by a long stretch of imagination but I probably more competent than many who consider themselves "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. My kids who just learned how to read use OpenBSD. They can tell you "everything" about booting, buffering and many other things. They even do their homework on OpenBSD. > 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? Ironically the major downside of making leaving at least in part by playing with OpenBSD was that for the first time I was forced to use Linux. At work we have to use proprietary software as MATLAB which doesn't run on OpenBSD but besides that there are simply situations in which OpenBSD is not the most appropriate tool (for example to do scientific computing) or even storing large amounts of data (HAMMER comes to mind). I am becoming semi-competent RedHat users and I could not begin to describe you my frustration with inconsistencies, shear complexity and unpredictability of the Linux in general and RedHat in particular which is rock stable comparing to a distro like Ubuntu. > 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)? I would say that it is the other way around. Linux is too technical and too difficult. Don't belive me. Try writing semi serious firewall rules using IP tables and then compare to PF. Try configuring something as trivial as DHCP server or even client on Linux. Try getting NFS to work properly or OpenVPN. The situation gets just worse with more complicated services. Actually for people who need proprietary software at least on the Desktop level and plug and play features OS X offers significant advantages over Linux. If you know how to use it OS X is even interesting for UNIX guys who do not want to think.
