[PLUG] OpenBSD on Portables?

[Rich Burroughs]

Can I ask the rather sidetracky question of, "Why?" Is this just to 
learn about OpenBSD? Is this laptop holding exteremely sensitive 
information? Or is there something else I'm missing?

OpenBSD is just not the first *nix that comes to my mind when I think 
about workstations even, let alone laptops. If your thought is that 
OpenBSD will be more "lightweight," that may be true, but any Linux/Unix 
can be installed in a more lightweight fashion.

OpenBSD is great, but there is a pretty small development team (at least 
there was the last tinme I checked), and I think you are more likely to 
run into problems with things like drivers. Maybe everything will be 
covered for an older laptop, but if their site does not list it as 
compatible then I wouldn't assume it's going to work.

If I were installing a laptop, I would go with a Linux distro (Ubuntu 
seems to have a pretty small profile) or even FreeBSD if you are a *BSD 
fan. YMMV of course.

As for services, it depends on exactly what you want to do. It's not 
clear to me from your description, but you might not need any.


Rich

Rich Shepard wrote:
>   As my old Toshiba Portege 3025CT has no resale value, I'd like to replace
> the Slackware it's now running with OpenBSD and use it for a lightweight
> communicator and writing machine when I'm away from the office.
> 
>   The official OpenBSD on Laptops web site does not list this model. I find
> other Toshibas (including the Libretto L70 and a Portege 2000) so the OS
> should install and run on this model.
> 
>   However, I have not found anything -- yet -- on the web or in my OpenBSD
> book that suggests what should be installed on a portable rather than on a
> workstation or server. And, what services should be configured for a box 
> that
> would be used both on the office network and stand-alone.
> 
>   Pointers to suggestions are welcome. This is a low-priority project 
> for me
> so if it takes a few months that's perfectly OK.
>