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We chose to keep the questions author anonymous for this section.
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Question from K.: I'm curious about criterias for where you've chosen to use OpenBSD in some contexts versus a linux distribution in some others
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Solene@: there are many criterias that will come into the decision: first, are my software and hardware requirements compatible with OpenBSD? If no, usually Linux is a very good fallback. Most of the time, this will be the only question I need to think about, I would install OpenBSD any time when I have the choice AND it will do what I want. Another question would be in case of a multiple human users system, do I want them to use OpenBSD, is it a good idea? Finally, performance could also be an important factor in the decision, especially for embedded systems.
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Question from T.: I found it really confusing on how to get started with the very few basics of relayd and how to set it up with httpd. I could run httpd on its own but it seemed all the features I wanted were in relayd and the manual assumed a level of basic set-up info I didn't know
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Solene@: it is true the relation between httpd and relayd can be confusing. Relayd in front of httpd can add some logic related to headers while httpd doesn't have much logic in its configuration which make it relatively dependant to relayd for some use case. However, I usually recommend to use a web server like apache or nginx when you need some advanced features that httpd doesn't have.
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Question from T.: How to change the 404 page in httpd? Is there really no other way than changing the source code and recompiling httpd?
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Solene@: httpd received support for custom error pages in October 2021 in this commit, you can read about it in the man page
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Question from S.: I've always been curious how folks are able to play games like old Half-Life mods (e.g. Counter-Strike); like is this some wine or Linux compatibility layer or do there exist builds of these games for OpenBSD?
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Solene@:
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Question from W. O.: What are some practical uses for rdomains?
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Solene@: there are at least two different use I can think of right now. First use would be a system with multiple internet access that would use each independently, each link would live in its routing domain and would never mix with each other. Another use case would be with VPN, instead of using it as a default gateway it could run in a different routing domain, the user could then choose per-application if it should pass through the VPN or not.
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Question from R. S.: Assuming a new user is coming from a linux background, what things do you think are critical to know about OpenBSD?
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Solene@: I think new users should now about OpenBSD not being a Linux distribution, this is a very common mistake that lead people to follow wrong instructions when looking for help. In addition, knowing about the FAQ on the website and how to efficiently read man pages would be a great introduction. Of course, starting a new product by its documentation it nos very fun, but as OpenBSD is really different than Linux I'm convinced new user should spend some time learning how to use the documentation.
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Question from R. S.: What do you think is the coolest 'new' thing in the upcoming release?
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Solene@: I'm personnally happy to see support for distributing gzipped content in httpd but I have to admit the various changes such as Apple M1 support or all the WiFi improvements are exciting.
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Question from R. S.: Name an unexpected man page that you think is a must-read for admins.
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Solene@: here is the afterboot man page
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Question from T.: Is any work on network/PF perfomance being done? I use OpenBSD as a firewall, and it works great with my existing hardware an internet connection, but when I look at benchmarks it seems to lag behind Linux and FreeBSD as far as throughput in this application.
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Solene@: there is a current work to improve PF performance to make it use multiple CPU at once, in the end this will give good results. However we regularly reach milestones and performance are getting better at every new release.
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