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Comment by hedora | Hacker News Reader

This. The thing I dislike the most about openbsd is the lack of modern, supported hardware.

One notable exception is the PC Engines APU 2, though that’s stretching the definition of modern.

Seriously: Pick a laptop SKU that is still being manufactured and has similar ergonomics to a MacBook Pro or classic thinkpad (centered keyboard + trackpad, 4K screen, all the other bits in the right spots, reasonably quiet, 8 hour real world battery), and mark it up by $200. Sell it from a site that OpenBSD links to.

Make sure the manufacturer agrees to build that exact laptop for at least 5 years. (Moore’s law is dead, after all.)

Have the project test 100% of the hardware devices in that laptop on each point release, and donate the $200 markup to the project.

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The biggest things that OpenBSD doesn't support (well) are Bluetooth, some wifi cards and TPM modules. And you can literally fix all of these issues with a supported USB device. Been running OpenBSD on multiple generations of Thinkpad laptops without issue. Using the Protectli 6 port device as an OpenBSD router (Intel NICs are well-supported).

Add to that bluetooth is generally a mess. The only thing where it is vaguely useful is for audio and I believe you can still use a bluetooth audio transceiver such as the Creative BT-W3 that present itself as a usb audio interface to the OS if you really want to connect those audio headphones of yours.

That's exactly the device I was referring to and what I do. :)

My desktop is a new-ish AMD CPU, brand-new intel wifi, brand new AMD GPU computer, and I didn't so much as think about anything related to compatibility with OpenBSD. For laptops, I'd assume the Framework laptop works without issue? Hard to compete with Apple on portables for sure, but anything but macOS is a WIP there.

For me the thing that keeps me from running OpenBSD 100% of the time is my Steam library, but I'm considering demoting my PC to a living room gaming device and handling my modest desktop computing needs via something small and fanless running OpenBSD.

Thinkpad X1 is a phenomenal device to run OpenBSD on. The last couple of times I tried it, things worked out of the box perfectly.

I really want to see something like this. I'd honestly be happy with something like a RaspPi with an SSD and a huge battery in a laptop with good build quality. My system reqs are really low; a laptop that would survive 20 years with regular use would be fantastic.

The Pinebook Pro is well supported by NetBSD (not sure about OpenBSD), and it can take eMMC, at least. It's quite affordable, battery life is excellent, and my Pinebook feels pretty rugged. It has a six core RK3399 and 4 gigs of memory. I don't think you can get a better laptop for the price ($220 US).

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