[SOLVED] OpenBSD distro for VirtualBox on an iMac

curtvaughan · 12-11-2014, 07:16 PM

Has anyone messed with OpenBSD on Virtualbox? I am running several VMs on my fairly new iMac - three Mint distros, one Ubuntu - and for nostalgic reasons would like to install some sort of BSD via Virtualbox. I first used Unix* on a timesharing Vax 780 running BSD back in the mid-80s, graduated to a Sun II running some sort of Sun OS, later played around with System 5 variants on a Cray X/MP, and finally with DEC Unix on an Alpha triple booted with VMS and Windows NT. Anyway, been around the block, am now retired, and would like to play around with BSD again. Are the open software versions robust and of good quality? Any installations pointers.

Cheers and beers!

cynwulf · 12-12-2014, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by curtvaughan

Has anyone messed with OpenBSD on Virtualbox?

Yes, it works fine as does FreeBSD (using right not from virtualbox in fact).

Quote:

Originally Posted by curtvaughan

Are the open software versions robust and of good quality? Any installations pointers.

The focus of OpenBSD is security and code quality.

jefro · 12-12-2014, 03:00 PM

I agree with cynwulf. (assume not is now)

Virtualbox is for the most part a very common computer to the client.

I'd think that BSD distro's are not antiquated as such.

Virtual machines are simply one of the best ways to install and run a distro of almost any sort. Emulators exist for a number of systems.

Head_on_a_Stick · 12-12-2014, 04:55 PM

I was playing around with GhostBSD in VirtualBox recently (MATE edition) -- it's lovely to use and ran better under VM than it did on the bare metal.

Recommended

curtvaughan · 02-07-2015, 02:49 PM

I will give ghostbsd a try - looking at the reviews and descriptions, it looks interesting. I especially like that it comes with a Mate default desktop. FreeBSD comes with no default desktop and PC-BSD has a few simple desktops available (unfortunately, a few such as a Cinnamon port, are very buggy). PC-BSD at least has an active lead developer, so may improve shortly. Installation of FreeBSD took me back some 25 years to BSD 4.2 installs on old DEC Vax hardware - command line installation with options to configure Xwindows for a frontend. If I was still working with servers, FreeBSD and OpenBSD would look to be nice to play with. Thanks for the suggestions and info!