Well, just check on OpenPorts.se if the software you need is there. I don't think there are many GNOME users on OpenBSD (you may have some better luck with XFCE, but it's just my guess). However, I think that after GNOME3 is out there, GNOME 2.30 might stay in ports for a while and get some polishing, so it might become a stable and robust experience, just like with KDE 3.5.
Second, check for your hardware. There is no such thing as "standard x86". You might have an unsupported wi-fi or ethernet card or anything else, there might be some ACPI issues. And you're not likely to get 3D if you have Nvidia (Intel & ATI should work, to my knowledge). And you're lucky if you don't need Unicode. For me that's a big show-stopper on a desktop machine. Once OpenBSD gets UTF-8, there won't be just any reason for me not to use it on a laptop. All my hardware (Thinkpad X200s) is supported, all the apps I need are there. It's just that I don't want to think about the encoding of the files I get on USB sticks, etc. There should be some UTF-love coming to 4.8, I believe. Oh, and one more thing - think about any proprietary software you want to use. Because you're likely won't be able to do so. It's not just Flash, but also Skype, for example. Other than that you'll get a stable and nice OS, much better than Linux in some regards, not so point-n-click (no GUI manager for wireless connections, for example), but transparent and predictable. >I am thinking about changing my OS to OpenBSD on my laptop, which is standard >x86. >It would be used as internet browser, mail client, multimedia, pciture & >video, etc ... >My question is simple, is OpenBSD convenient enough for a daily usage ? >What are the experiences about that ? >Just to be sure, as of today, is ntfs experimental or working, or not ? for >read ? for r/w ? >I will certainly do with gnome wm. >I know such question might not be very convenient to answer, this is just to >be sure I can peacefully back-up my data and reinstall freshly without >worrying about anything but being using a great os. >Thanks
