Like clockwork, every six months, we have a new OpenBSD release. OpenBSD 7.8 adds support for the Raspberry Pi 5, tons of improvements to sleep, wake, and hibernate, the TCP stack can now run in parallel on multiple processors, and so much more. DRM has been updated to match Linux 6.12.50, and drivers for the Qualcomm Snapdragon DRM subsystem and Qualcomm DisplayPort controller were added as well.
The changelog is, as always, long and detailed, so head on over for the finer details. OpenBSD users will know how to upgrade, and new users can visit the download page.
Obviously openbsd is super solid. no one doubts that. But I get the feeling sometimes it’s trying to fight entropy, Turing and Gödel all the same time. Impossible. I like to surf the chaos and have a lot more toys.
The multithreaded TCP stack is a huge deal, and brings OpenBSD close to the same level of performance as FreeBSD and Linux in networking-heavy workloads.
The lid suspend/resume for GPIO based laptop sensors means my current daily driver laptop will now suspend properly (hopefully, I haven’t tested it yet).
I encourage anyone who was put off by previous releases feeling sluggish on their hardware to try a fresh install of 7.8, you might be surprised by the changes (again depending on your hardware, of course). I’m about to do just that!
What will a fresh install bring you that an upgrade wouldn’t have?
It was in the context of someone who had tried it and given up on it previously. That would be a fresh installation. Those of us who already use it will of course sysupgrade.
I would LOVE to have a computer and triple boots between BSD, HAIKU and OS/2 (latest 2025 version – see https://www.arcanoae.com/ if you don’t believe it. And no, I don’t have any part of the OS/2 team. I’m just a person that likes OS/2).
I’m sure there is a computer out there that I can run all three on but I’m not spending three years to find it only to find that it isn’t be sold anymore. But I would love to have a computer that I could run all three on.
@Sabon
ArcaOS supports both UEFI and NVMe now, so hardware support is not so bad. FreeBSD is putting a lot of effort into drivers as well. Haiku may be the most finicky.
I bet an old Thinkpad would run all three. I would try it and let you know but sadly I do not have an ArcaOS license. I am also quite an OS/2 fan but $140 for 6 months and $70 a year after that is just too steep for a non-commercial license.
Why not add AROS (FOSS AmigaOS clone for x86) to it and quadruple-boot 🙂
And maybe Illumos instead of BSD, after all it’s a “real” System V Unix so you get more nerd credibility.