Just give me the Iso
All of the major GNU/Linux distros have downloadable isos that you can burn to CD and use to boot and install the operating system onto your machine.
Some of this freely downloadable distros are branded differently to their shrink-wrapped versions, e.g. SuSe and OpenSuSe, Linspire and Freespire, Redhat Enterprise and Fedora (plus Scientific Linux, CentOS, White Box, etc).
Unlike most Linux distros, OpenBSD does not have a downloadable iso. You have to buy the CD. You can, however, download a minimal boot CD and use that to install the packages via ftp. Yes this is surely part of the reason that no- one uses OpenBSD and why they are broke. If you make it very hard to get then people will just use give up and use something else. It people move elsewhere then they are not supporting you and you have no money.
Minimal use of the minimal CD
After entering the minimal CD, the command-line prompt seemed to want some form of unspecified input. After a little while it gave up and booted anyway.
I was presented with some random hardware detection output and the choice of whether to press I, U or S. I pressed I for install, hoping that nothing nasty would automatically happen to my disk.
Next I was asked my terminal type. Since there was no clue as to what the options were, I pressed enter for the default.
Then I was given the option of the keyboard mapping. It would have been nice to have this option first. There was no dvorak option anyway, so it was no real help when it did arrive.
Then was presented with a number of arcane charts, which after a few seconds I realised it was my existing disk layout. It was fdisk captain, but not as we as know it.
I then found that the partition (type a6) that I had prepared for OpenBSD was within an extended partition and that was not allowed and so I had problems.
Hardware reboot time... CD in the bin... The End.
<p>OpenBSD expects you to read all related manuals, and with some amount of time
things actually do make sense. It's not the most user-friendly OS for new
users, but they make it clear that that's not top priority from their point
of view. It's just a matter of taste <img src="/static/forum/img/smilies/smile.png"></p>
<p>By the way, nice to read some of your experiences with new OS-s!</p>
<p>FreeBSD is much nicer <img src="/static/forum/img/smilies/smile.png"></p>
<p>There are plenty of "unofficial" iso's available to download.</p>
<p>Alright junior, learn to read next time instead of being a a child and
whining about whow things are hard when you don't. Command Line Warriors?
More like Graphics Loving Panzies.</p>
<p>Fantastic Natalia!!! I'll put that on the header of of the page!</p>
<p>Usually I use 'Windows Wimp' as the opposite for 'Command Line Warrior' but
'Graphics Loving Panzies' works too.</p>
<p>I am not trying setting myself up as an expert or anything! I am attempting
to create an open discussion on the command line and Linux.</p>
<ol class="arabic">
<li><p class="first">OpenBSD is not a Linux distribution.</p>
</li>
<li><dl class="first docutils">
<dt>OpenBSD do not cater for users unwilling to read manuals. If you're</dt>
<dd><p class="first last">not willing to read manuals, it probably was best that you thrown the CD
in the bin.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
</ol>
<p>OpenBSD might have a point in trying to get people to read the manuals prior
to installing. But if that's the way they want to be, maybe they should stop
whining about not having any users.</p>
<p>Uhm, I don't recall them ever whining about not having any users.</p>
<p>The have asked for financial support of their projects from the existing user
base, which if you include all the users of OpenSSH is very very large and
includes many large companies making millions.</p>
<p>Zeth,</p>
<p>Not trying to rib you but this article inspired me to give it a go. My
article is titled <a class="reference external" href="http://bashcurescancer.com/openbsd-4-installed-in-20-minutes.html">OpenBSD 4.0 Installed in 20 minutes</a>.</p>
<p>I was using VMWare do I did not have to worry about losing my disk. It took
me awhile to figure out that fdisk but I was able to figure it out as I think
its similar to Solaris. The article is the 3rd try as the first two did not
go as smoothly!</p>
<p>Cheers mate!</p>
<p>Brock</p>
<p>LOL! It seems OpenBSD really is only for smart people.
I have OpenBSD on all my computers. My laptop dual boots it with windows xp
home. How did i manage all this? <a class="reference external" href="http://www.openbsd.org">http://www.openbsd.org</a>
I kinda used these eye things and this brain thing and read those word
thingys.</p>
<p>Ah come on. He did not want to screw up his drive with a odd version of
fdisk.</p>
<p>Dusty, you used that brain thing, and yet you cannot spell thingies. Graphics
Loving Panzies is nice, I much prefer it to Windrones and GNUbies.</p>
<p>The partition was within an extended partition? "All BSD systems have a
common method of dividing up hard disks, even though the partition types and
filesystem formats differ among all of the BSD derivatives. First you must
assign a certain area (=slice) of the disk for your operating system, then
you may divide it up into a number of partitions, on which you will put
filesystems. This differs from DOS, Windows, and Linux in that they do not
deal with slices, just partitions." And for dvorak: "If you use a Dvorak
keyboard or a keyboard in a different country, press l (lowercase L) to see a
list of keyboard types" - hope that helped. BSD rocks!</p>
<p>OpenBSD is not really that difficult to use, you just have to read the FAQ
because it's different from most OS installations. Once you get your head
around it, it's a piece of cake. I like OpenBSD because of the excellent
documentation, both on the system itself, and on the website. I'm glad they
spent more time on improving the OS and not on a pretty and helpful
installer.</p>
<p>OpenBSD does not whine. The do complain to vendors about closed hardwared
documentation and licenses that are not TRULY FREE.</p>
<p>OpenBSD is not in need of users. They developers are focused on
making/improving an OS that works right and is correct. They don't really
care if they have 10,000 users or 10,000,000 users. Read the project goals.
They are not trying to compete with anyone. The project is void of that kind
of garbage which is why I use it. OpenBSD is a great project and I'm sure you
are experiencing the fruits of it every time you fire up ssh on your linux
box.</p>
<p>OpenBSD is free, but if you want a bundled cd set, you must pay. This helps
cover the cost of the hackathons (where lots of great work is done on the
OS), the hardware, the bandwidth, etc. They've already given away their
source code with a FREE license, they don't charge anyone any money to use
OpenSSH. What more do you want? Developers need money too.</p>
<p>So in the spirit of "don't knock it until you try it", you haven't really
tried it out, since you couldn't install it. It's a great OS. It's done
right, in my opinion. Just because you are popular, does not mean you are the
best or right. Also, you can't expect OpenBSD to be like "most linux distros"
since most OpenBSD developers don't even use Linux.</p>
<p>Hope that helps. I'm not trying to blast you, I just thought the "command
line warrior" would have a real appreciation for a well made, correct,
secure, and well documented OS that has a command line install (fastest
install I've ever done btw).</p>
<p>I challenge you try again:
* Read the OpenBSD FAQ pertaining to installation before installation.
* Get a OpenBSD 4.1 system up and running. (post a dmesg to your blog)
* Read <a href="http://undeadly.org" rel="nofollow">undeadly.org</a>. There are lots of posts about the current OpenBSD
hackathon.</p>
<p>Hi Joe, thanks for your comment.</p>
<p>>So in the spirit of “don’t knock it until you try it”, you haven’t really
tried it out, since you couldn’t install it.</p>
<p>Well if the only way to try it out is this complex dated FTP nonsense then
I'll skip it until I come across an ISO. If I want an operating system that I
cannot try before I buy then I might as well use OS X or Windows or whatever.
I think we should just accept that I am a Linux guy, it seems to be in my
blood. Either that or I try FreeBSD as Phill suggested.</p>
<p>Having said that I do quite like Solaris, but that is another story.</p>
<p>>OpenBSD is a great project and I’m sure you are experiencing the fruits of
it every time you fire up ssh on your linux box.</p>
<p>Caldera Linux contributed a few cool open source components once upon a time,
many of which are still in wide use, does that mean that I should go out and
buy SCO Unix?</p>
<p>OpenSSH is great yes. Your posters are great. Your approach to drivers and
freedom is great. Your operating system seems somewhat outdated however.</p>
<p>> post a dmesg to your blog</p>
<p>Why would I want to do that? It does not sound very exciting reading?</p>
<p>I understand your reluctance. To each his own. But a network install isn't
exactly outdated. In addition, the installation is not complex. It is simple
and to the point. I'm very happy with the installer because it just works.
I've had many gui based installs (debian, ubuntu, fedora) fail for various
reasons due to complex partitioning tools that crashed to graphics driver
errors.</p>
<p>Thus, "new" (colorful whizbang gui grafix) is not necessarily better.</p>
<p>Posting a dmesg is more a <a href="#id1"><span class="problematic" id="id2">*</span></a>bsd thing I guess. It's an easy way of showing,
"hey, it works on this hardware!"</p>
<div class="system-message" id="id1">
<p class="system-message-title">System Message: WARNING/2 (<tt class="docutils"><string></tt>, line 10); <em><a href="#id2">backlink</a></em></p>
Inline emphasis start-string without end-string.</div>
<p>I'm OS-agnostic... over the years, I've run or used the major Linux, <a href="#id1"><span class="problematic" id="id2">*</span></a>BSD,
Windows, and Mac OS's. I read a quote somewhere in the past few years that I
think might be relevant to your apparent confusion. I'm sure a google will
turn up its source if you're interested. It went something like this.</p>
<div class="system-message" id="id1">
<p class="system-message-title">System Message: WARNING/2 (<tt class="docutils"><string></tt>, line 1); <em><a href="#id2">backlink</a></em></p>
Inline emphasis start-string without end-string.</div>
<p>"Linux was created by PC users who wanted a Unix-like operating system on
their PC. The BSD's were created by Unix users who wanted a Unix-like
operating system on their PC."</p>
<p>Ever since I read that, I've more fully understood the differences between
the two.</p>
<p>Good luck with your next BSD install. :-)</p>
<p>Sounds to me like someone is too dumb to read, you belong with Ubuntu.</p>
<p>"Then was presented with a number of arcane charts, which after a few seconds
I realised it was my existing disk layout. It was fdisk captain, but not as
we as know it."</p>
<p>I like how you use 'arcane'.</p>
<p>If you decide to try again just remember read the manual it's your friend! <img src="/static/forum/img/smilies/smile.png">
Plus on a side note OpenBSD can become a functional/secure desktop if you
take your time configuring everything the way that you like it.</p>
<p>I prefer to use it for a firewall and have FreeBSD on my desktop system.</p>