[Accacin]

As a long time Linux user, I keep thinking about trying a BSD variant, but I get hung up on two things. 1) Which do I pick? NetBSD? OpenBSD? 2) Hardware? I'm thinking about an old ThinkPad for programming, and it looks like OpenBSD at least should run fine on that. What's hardware support like overall?

[geff82]

An Thinkpad up to the 4-Series (x240,t440,t540) can run any BSD, but after that, OpenBSD is your best bet. NetBSD (the one I learned about Unix with) has fallen a bit behind in features and hardware support, it is rarely used for production any more (makes me sad, but that is how it is). FreeBSD has a giant set of features and has the most current and largest software library, yet it does not run perfect on newer Laptops. OpenBSD ist more conservative and very pure, is used in some production environments, is actively developed but has the smallest and least up-to-date software library. So you can choose which disadvantage you can live most with. NetBSD is said to run on the largest number of platforms, but I'd argue that in practice Linux took its place long ago.

[sogubsys]

I think there's a bit of a difference in that NetBSD project itself (kernel and userland) run on all the platforms/architectures, and Linux (the kernel) supports a lot of platforms/architectures itself, you need to find userland that matches... usually finding a distro that is well supported.

NetBSD supports all architectures as part of itself as a whole, no need for distro searching.

One of the cool things about BSD is that kernel and userland are bundled/tightly-coupled together as one single unit. With Linux, you need to find the appropriate distro to help you outside of the few major platforms.

Apples and oranges comparison.

http://netbsd.org/about/portability.html

[MisterTea]

You won't know until you try them out. My best advice is to download them all and fire up some virtual machines and get installing. Build each of the systems to meet your needs and see how you feel about the admin process.

For my more basic needs which is development I chose OpenBSD based on their simple, pragmatic design coupled with tight security practices in coding. Their documentation is excellent and their man pages are easy to grok and can get you 80% of the way to your goal most of the time without resorting to a search engine for help. Their FAQ pages are also full of simple, straightforward information and how-to guides that are very newbie friendly. I'm not an IT expert or unix admin, I do this for fun and as a semi serious hobby. So it's really comforting when you can type 'man networking' and figure out how to assign a static ip to an ethernet interface without having to resort to a search engine.

Hardware support is pretty good and I have it running on an older athlon x4 system, IBM T40 laptop, and my APU2 board from PC Engines (No problem installing to the SD card). Everything just works and I've yet to find a machine that can't properly run OpenBSD.

The rub is the system is more old school unix than "modern" Linux desktop. So don't expect things to be "Linux Gnome desktop easy". But it is by no means difficult to install, configure and use if you are somewhat knowledgeable with the comand line. If this intimidates you, perhaps you could go with a more desktop oriented BSD like TrueOS, a FreeBSD fork and start there. That's how I got familiar with the unix world; start with a hand holding distro and work your way down to the engine rooms ;-)

[JdeBP]

TrueOS Desktop has become Project Trident now.

* https://project-trident.org/

[yellowapple]

> Which do I pick?

OpenBSD :)

> Hardware?

Most OpenBSD devs seem to do their development on OpenBSD-running ThinkPads, so I'd say that's a good choice.

I ran OpenBSD 6.something (wanna say 6.1?) on my work laptop (ThinkPad T470) for awhile. Only significant issue was that the keyboard would intermittently wig out when booted via UEFI (affected Linux, too; legacy booting was not affected). I ended up switching to Slackware (needed to be able to run Google Hangouts and Zoom, both of which require Linux), but I'm strongly considering switching back now that vmd is a thing (since it can theoretically satisfy my Linux-requiring needs via exposing an X server to the VM or using VNC or something).

[pfortuny]

I have installed OpenBSD on a 2006 (yep) MBPro. Charming.

[yellowapple]

OpenBSD's my default OS for PowerPC Macs.

[pimeys]

I just got a ThinkPad X230 with an IPS screen and an i7 CPU for 180 euros. It's the last one with a non-ULV CPU, which means it's still quite fast. And it all works perfectly, except maybe the bluetooth and fingerprint reader. With a 9-cell battery you'll get easily enough hours of usage, with apmd I'm clocking around 5-6 hours, which is fine for my use.

[emgee_1]

Openbsd does not support Bluetooth

[geff82]

Mmmmmh... Using Linux and 9 cells (92wh), my x240 runs for about 12 hours.

[ahje]

I, like you, am quite curious about it. I've given OpenBSD a few tries and it runs quite well in a VM, but I've never managed to get it running properly with wifi. I guess it's time to give it a new go, considering there's a bunch of wifi-improvements listed.

[pimeys]

Make sure you have a supported chipset, e.g. an intel one. Some cards need extra firmware, which you'll get in the first boot, so until that a network cable is needed.

One of the best things about OpenBSD is how connecting to the WiFi is done with ifconfig and how trivial it is compared to wpa_supplicant or NetworkManager.

[ahje]

Oh yeah. The docs make the process look very easy and simple. I simply don't have a well-supported card in any of my laptops. I guess I'll have to order a new one. :D

[enriquto]

You can also pick DragonflyBSD