Installing OpenBSD on the Pomera DM250{,XY?}(jcs.org)
jcs.org
Installing OpenBSD on the Pomera DM250{,XY?}
https://jcs.org/2026/04/09/openbsd-dm250
2 comments
I’m really glad to see this; I miss having openbsd on my long ago Sony Vaio, and I’d rather have a familiar editing environment on the Pomera’s hardware. I’ll have to study how keyboard layouts work to see if I can correct that; my DM250 has the U.S. layout stickers and I’d rather swap layouts than peel them.
I tend to use FreeBSD and Linux mostly. Here is my take on OpenBSD.
Good:
- Small, comprehensible system
- Emphasis on simplicity
- Developers good about getting OpenBSD working on newer architectures e.g. Apple M1/M2
- pf
Bad:
- Very security forward but userspace and kernel almost exclusively in C
- Many security mitigations have questionable value but most certainly make the system a bit less flexible e.g. raw syscalls only via libc
- No journaled filesystem in 2026
- Still uses CVS in 2026
- System feels a bit slow and not yet fully tuned for multicore (improving gradually though)
- Community a bit insular and does not feel very welcoming (you may disagree)
TL;DR - I'm not a fan. Linux for maximum features and performance. FreeBSD when you want to use a BSD. Why FreeBSD ? See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47322710
Good:
- Small, comprehensible system
- Emphasis on simplicity
- Developers good about getting OpenBSD working on newer architectures e.g. Apple M1/M2
- pf
Bad:
- Very security forward but userspace and kernel almost exclusively in C
- Many security mitigations have questionable value but most certainly make the system a bit less flexible e.g. raw syscalls only via libc
- No journaled filesystem in 2026
- Still uses CVS in 2026
- System feels a bit slow and not yet fully tuned for multicore (improving gradually though)
- Community a bit insular and does not feel very welcoming (you may disagree)
TL;DR - I'm not a fan. Linux for maximum features and performance. FreeBSD when you want to use a BSD. Why FreeBSD ? See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47322710