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BSDanywhere Announces First Release
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Fri Oct 17, 2008 03:05 PM
from the anywhere-that-has-an-optical-drive-that-is dept.
from the anywhere-that-has-an-optical-drive-that-is dept.
The call of ktulu writes "Good things come to those who wait. After eight months of work the relatively new project BSDanywhere has announced its first final release 4.3. BSDanywhere is a bootable Live-CD image based on OpenBSD. It consists of the entire OpenBSD base system (without compiler) plus enlightenment desktop, an unrepresentative collection of software, automatic hardware detection and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices as well as other peripherals. Give it a spin."
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Submission: BSDanywhere announces first release by Anonymous Coward
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BSD? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, it stands for Blue Screen of Death.
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no compiler? (Score:3, Interesting)
No compiler? What, why?
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Because CDs can only hold what -- 700 MB? Compilers take space. The purpose of the LiveCD is attract new users into the fold, not to preach to the choir.
Re:no compiler? (Score:4, Insightful)
Shame. Who would use OpenBSD beyond system admins and developers I can't really see. And as another post noted below, you still have to roll your own install media or fork over money.
(oh, and the instructions on making your media are not very clear. Basically says "look at the files here, and have fun)
Parent
Re:no compiler? (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry, you are mistaken:
http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/pub/OpenBSD/4.3/i386/install43.iso [ualberta.ca] (203M)
They've had a bootable CD ISO for quite some time, but would be required to do a net install. It's not a big deal since the whole download is just over 100MB. If you couldn't do that you, would need to supply another CD or USB with the install files on it. In the last 2-3 releases, the OpenBSD started created a pre-compiled bootable ISO with all the files included.
Parent
Installs removed - - Was: Re:no compiler? (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, it looks like the last prerelease beta's big "feature" was that it stripped away an already extant installation routine.
There's a reason I don't bother with source-based Linux distributions anymore, and I've never seen one that made installation anywhere near the level of sheer PITA that you see in OpenBSD. User friendly LiveCDs like this are built to pitch an OS as a desktop OS, not a server OS. To strip away a user-friendly installation routine and call it a "feature" seems like a joke to me.
It'
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Re:no compiler? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who would use OpenBSD beyond system admins and developers I can't really see.
What's wrong with OpenBSD? The latest release comes with a lot of software, including a recent(-ish) version of KDE. While it's not my first choice for a desktop, I wouldn't cry if someone told me I had to use it.
Parent
Re:no compiler? (Score:5, Insightful)
Shame. Who would use OpenBSD beyond system admins and developers I can't really see.
Think kids. As in smart, curious kids. Yes, they still make those.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
OpenBSD has distrbuted the full install iso online for a few releases now. But if you're not a jerk you'll support the project by buying the official package.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why would you want a compiler on a read-only system? A text-editor may be useful to craft an e-mail (in /tmp), but results of compilation are typically expected to survive a reboot or two...
Re:no compiler? (Score:5, Insightful)
What about something like a student lab. The system boots to an always clean environment, you do some programming exercises including compilation and save the results to a USB flash drive. Next student reboots so nothing nasty is left over from previous users (except filth sneezed onto the keyboard).
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Student labs tend to be administered by professional admins. Those people neither need nor will accept a one-size-fits all solution made by someone else. And they can devise a read-only boot-from-the-network solution, that works better, is easier to maintain, and is otherwise superior to a pre-made CD.
But yes, there may be cases, where a compiler could come handy even on a read-only system. Yet, when deciding, what to throw out to save space, the compiler toolchain is the obvious first candidate — r
Re:no compiler? (Score:5, Informative)
It's not a big deal. You can simply extract comp43.tgz from any OpenBSD mirror.. Just for the record, it's 75MB gzip COMPRESSED. But ya, why would you need a compiler for a bootable CD?
Found here: http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/pub/OpenBSD/4.3/i386/comp43.tgz [ualberta.ca]
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's just a rescue CD anyway...
I am trying think of a time I needed a compiler on a box I was using a rescue CD on and I'm pretty sure I've forced the experience from my memory. I have a pretty low tolerance for that sort of thing anyway. So usually I just go in grab the data and config files, then reinstall current. But I haven't done that recently either. Knock on wood...
Also I am not sure of the utility of having an "unrepresentative collection of software" on a rescue CD. I guess this must be signif
A LiveCD ... (Score:5, Funny)
... of a dead OS? (Netcraft etc.)
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OpenBSD is far from dead, buddy. PF, OpenSSH, OpenCVS.. all being widely adopted and ported across OS'. Hell, even windows uses OpenBSD code BSD Licensed code in its OS (traceroute anyone?). The code is solid and highly audited before AND after release. There's a reason there have only been a couple of remote holes in over 10 years. There are NO binary blobs in source and drivers are reverse engineered if necessary to add to the OS. And on another note, the BSD license is a very easy license to follow if ne
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you must be new here.
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"Netcraft confirms it, BSD [or other] is dying" is kind've a running joke around here (which is why OP is modded "funny").
It's pretty much a rubber-stamp troll post designed to elicit responses like... well exactly like your post. ;)
Read more about common Slashdot memes [wikipedia.org]. And yes, you must memorize every single one before posting another byte to the hallowed halls of /. ;)
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I think this confirms it: Netcraft is dying!
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I agree, it is undeadly [undeadly.org]...
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OpenBSD made me what I am today.
A dork?
Fun, but not installable from this CD (Score:4, Informative)
Many live CD systems now have taken to being installable from those same CDs. According to the release announcement, one still has to acquire an OpenBSD release set to install to hdd. Too bad.
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Full-featured live CD/DVDs with installers are very handy.
It's nice to surf for more information while you install, especially if you run into problems. Dual-use install media are a great convenience for Linux users. It is reasonable to expect other OS to be offered that way if their proponents are serious about market penetration. It works for Ubuntu/Kubuntu/other 'buntus.
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Lower the price and I might consider. At that price and the hassle it is to deal without forking cash over, I'll give OpenBSD a pass.
Re:Fun, but not installable from this CD (Score:5, Funny)
Morning routine:
Laptops are weird.
Parent
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Last I checked, a prebuilt ISO was not available.
$40 is too much for me. $20 is my psychological turning-point with software.
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Yes.. it's been a while.
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OpenBSD -- It's what is on my firewall and should be on yours. My only complaint about OpenBSD?
I can't afford to contribute enough $$ to get listed in the liner notes anymore.
Firewire Support? (Score:2)
Yeah, but does it have FireWire support?
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/17/1331229 [slashdot.org]
Re:Firewire Support? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
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Thanks, I hadn't seen that port yet. Looks like the same guy has created ports for several editing tools as well as PrBoom-plus, but none of them have been included in the ports tree yet. (Too close to 4.4 release time, maybe...)
What exactly about the software... (Score:3, Insightful)
Great initiative (Score:3, Interesting)
Nowadays, anyone who wants to discover a new operating system wants to try a live CD first.
Although there were other live OpenBSD CDs (like OliveBSD), yet another one, especially based upon something original like Enlightenment, is a great thing.
OpenBSD is often described as a server-only (or network-stuff-only) operating system. Actually, it can also be a decent desktop OS.
I'm using OpenBSD on my primary workstation for 7 years and I'm quite happy with it. The only thing I *really* miss, especially as a web developper, is the lack of Flash support (except crappy support with Opera). nspluginwrapper + linux emulation is still as stable as nitroglycerine.
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While I've never contested the fact that any *BSD can be a decent desktop OS given enough time to fiddle with it, I'm downloading it for yet another reason: I've never tried any *BSD OS.
I'm a man of old habits and have been using Linux for 12 years now. Time to discover what's "out there" ;)
In fact, I've been looking into OpenBSD at some time, but was rebuked by its user community, which I found quite unhelpul (an OpenBSD IRC channel which I went on to gather information about the OS likened me to a "Gentoo
Downloading the ISO now (Score:3, Interesting)
I was waiting for this as we have a need for a few digital signage/internet kiosk application and I can't think of a better OS that OpenBSD on the default security side. Now to see if I can get it to boot off a Compact Flash card.
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> Now to see if I can get it to boot off a Compact Flash card.
Posting this from OBSD 4.3 booting from a Toshiba 1GB CF for the system and a 4GB generic CF for writable partitions. With the CFs in an IDE adapter ( or even a Cardbus adapter ) the OBSD installer just treats the CFs as IDE disks.
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I dunno about this repackaging, but I've been booting OpenBSD off of CF cards since 3.5 or so.
'Course, the latest one hasn't shut down and rebooted in 600-ish days, so I guess I haven't been testing that very well. :-)
Honest question (Score:2)
I'm going to take a performance hit. Other than that, what sort of problems am I going to have? Why is this a good/bad idea?
Thanks, SB
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Can you pleasepleasepleaseplease post some ISOs somewhere?
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They've been up on a variety of torrent sites for a while and you can get them from the OpenBSD website. I've been using it off and on for years and I think it's worth ponying up for the install disks. I keep coming back so I guess they're doing something right.
They also have a rather small CD image you could download and then do the rest of the install via FTP.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Just IMHO, though, if you're a *nix weenie and don't use OpenBSD it's almost a certainty that you use OpenSSH. It's a good gesture to toss them a few bucks for an ISO set or donate.
cd Enilightenment-dr0.13 (Score:3, Funny)
mkxmf
make enlightenment
(hmmnn. I've got 15 minutes. I wonder what's on "Chips'N'Dips"?)
Re: (Score:2)
Try out PCBSD [pcbsd.org], based of FreeBSD, aiming to be a alternative to Ubuntu.
If you are really that interested, you should be able to stomach installing GNOME on your own. Heck, google around, maybe somebody has already made a PCBSD remix with gnome as default.
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If you're too stupid to install to install Gnome from ports, you're too stupid to care what Window Manager you're using.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the reason BSD is dying is because people are too stupid!