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OS/Technology, (sdf.org), 10/22/2018
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User kvothe wrote about some misadventures with OpenBSD[1].
After spending an afternoon trying to get it to work, and
finding some good things, kvothe eventually decided to go
with something easier.
I had this exact experience with BSD a few months ago.
Years ago, having to spend gobs of time to setup my
daily operating environment would have been just fine with
me. I would have gladly compiled everything (which wasn't
fast on a 486, or even on a Cyrix 6x86), and manually
configured everything including my x11 modelines. None of it
would have bothered me.
Today, I really can't afford a system that doesn't work
right out of the box. The differences today are: 1) I have
choices that don't require me to spend all that time; and,
2) I have less time to spend on these kinds of things.
A caveat on the time thing: I *do* spend time doing
non-essential things, including non-essential things on
computers. That is to say, I spend some of my hobby time on
computery stuff, like installing archaic OSes, building and
repairing old things, and the like. One might think that I
have plenty of time to fiddle with my primary OS, but I do
not. The time I choose to spend for pleasure would not be
properly re-allocated fiddling with an OS for the OSes sake.
Kvothe went with Ubuntu. I really enjoy debian-based
systems, and I find Ubuntu entirely suitable. I say, if it
works and it gives you what you need, go for it.
As for me, the geek in me says that BSD would be great, but
the user in me says that I have to stick with what gives me
the least headache. I might not be geek enough to handle
BSD, I don't know. But I'm glad I'm not the only one.
[1]
gopher://circumlunar.space:70/1/~kvothe/phlog/2018-10-21-openbsd-is-a-bust/
