Jul 4, 2013

Why I Abandoned OpenBSD and Why You Should Too…

Dear OpenBSD developers and users:

Regretfully, I have decided to abandon OpenBSD and thought I would share my reasoning with this list. I thought the 4th of July was a good date to do so since my reasons address national security implications. As a group of people who take development, security, and privacy seriously, I know you will want to know why I made the drastic decision to abandon OpenBSD and never look back.

Jul 1, 2013

OpenBSD Doesn't Support 64-Bit Intel

Hi guys.

I’m a civil engineer by day and use OpenBSD at night, but I’m trying to do high-end CAD on my home PC and OpenBSD doesn’t support 64-bit Intel chips.

Don't believe me? It says so very clearly at the OpenBSD/amd64 page: “All versions of the AMD Athlon 64 processors and their clones are supported.” But does not mention or list any Intel chips. Not one.

Wtf? I can do CAD on my i7-980X under Windows 7 SP 1, but I’d rather use something secure and responsibly coded like OpenBSD. Except that I can't.

Why for the life of this platform are we not on the only future direction for the platform? And I mean that literally. Neither AMD nor Intel sells 32-bit chips anymore. If OpenBSD remains stuck at 32 bits, people will stop using and developing for it.

Who makes the decision to keep OpenBSD off of 64-bit Intel? And why the hell are they doing so?

-jash