Carlos Fenollosa, 29 Jun 2015 15:24: > Hi Tim, this is true. However, at some point, even > novice users might need to build a port to apply some > errata. If that port is one of the big ones (php, in > my case), they may realize that they don’t have > enough disk space.
everyone has different needs of course, but in my 15+ years of openbsd usage both on desktop and servers i needed to build ports exactly <counting fingers on 1 hand, give or take> times. for important infrastructure software more often than not security patches are applied also backwards to -stable releases and a simple pkg_add -u will do the same as apt-get update/upgrade. of course man-power is not the same so only the real pressing security issues get this treatment. also, only 2 version numbers are supported at any given time, giving you 6+6 months to plan upgrades. too fast for some, too slow for others. in any case, you won't see ancient software on openbsd servers, unlike on some glacier paced linux distros where php5.5 would be considered bleeding edge. desktop users tend to live on -current as ports development follow -current. it takes a bit of getting used to as the base system can get out of sync with snapshot ports for a couple of days at times, but that sounds scarier than it really is. i know it is time for a system update when i get shared library version mismatch error messages when updating ports. the only reasons i had to make packages: 1. the package does not come in the FLAVOR you want, as not all possible combinations are made into packages (man ports) for example vim-7.4.692-gtk2-perl-python-ruby but you want python3-lua-whatever 2. making a debug build (to send bug reports) 3. there is no port for what you want, or your port was rejected for some reason, it's WIP, etc. in this case you still get to use the wonderful scaffolding already in place, and can make packages often with just a couple of lines in a Makefile. creates packages you can update/remove/etc just like "official" ones. 4. you don't want to wait until your ports mirror catches up with its pre-built and you have a machine with 128G of ram to compile firefox. the fact is, openbsd made me into a lazy admin when it comes to packages, and it is a breath of fresh air every time i come back from work (ubuntu/debian/osx). -f -- you will become rich and famous unless you don't.
