For the record, I just paid (too little too late) a license for Reddit Is Fun (RIF).

If Reddit goes through with their plan, I will delete RIF from my phone and never go on Reddit again, which is probably just as well, since it is a huge waste of time.

They [OpenBSD] have a track record. A lot of people who work in computer security look up to them.

Unlike you, random /. user named "polotheclown".

And you think the NSA is interested in helping YOU secure YOUR Windows installation?

Oh, you swet summer child...

I play a dangerous hacker on TV, but that's about it.

In production, pretty much anything that has to run reliably and without a hitch for years.

Firewalls, routers, DNS server, Email server, all of these running CARP to cluster these functions and prevent service interruption. SSH boxes as well

On OpenBSD, you don't have 'apt', you have 'pkg_add' for applications (pkg_add -i vim to install vim, for instance) 'syspatch' to apply security patches and 'sysupgrade' to upgrade from one version to the next. I have just used sysupgrade to upgrade machines from 7.2 to 7.3 - super smooth.

Everything that you do with OpenBSD, you can do with Linux, including having a hardened security installation - it just comes 'out of the box' with all the security bells and whistles, and the whole system is of a very high quality, very well put together, very well documented. Try it, you may like it.

Same here - 1st OpenBSD machine updated from 7.2 to 7.3, without a hitch and without any issue. Beautiful OS, through and through, way more reliable than any Linux out there.

This. 1000 times this. Use OpenSSH? You are using something that is part of a great OS, named OpenBSD.

Yeah, sure, and you are a security expert.

Let me put it this way: if you take a look at some mailing lists like OSS, where people discuss things they actually know, you will note OpenBSD is one of the OS they go back to constantly.

And the refrain is: "Oh yeah, OpenBSD disabled this, or corrected this, or implemented this 3 years ago".

Maybe you don't like OpenBSD programmers or BDFL for their abrasive personalities, but they are way ahead of Linux in many ways.

I am sure you a great security expert, just like 99% of people on /.

...outweigh the needs of the few.

Hyper-individualism and hyper-capitalism don't work in an interconnected world. Decisions of individuals, groups, corporations or countries can reverberate across the globe as technological platforms, environmental woes and faith in economic systems become ever more entwined on a global scale.

This means we need regulation. On a local level (think of zoning), on a provincial/state level, on a national level and on a global level. A common framework of morality: How do we protect consumers? What warranties can I expect when I buy something from overseas? Is product safety in order? But also: What about privacy? And in the middle of a pandemic: does this business pose a risk to the population?

As such, the role of government is to protect its citizens.

In the Netherlands, we've had a sort of constitution since the Unie van Utrecht was drafted in 1579, culminating in our modern unified Constitution as written in 1851. This constitution doesn't talk about silly shit like citizens' right to commit violence. Because make no mistake, the notion that weapon ownership is a constitutional right is just bloody silly.

Our Constitution started out as a statement of intent against the Spanish empire: It said, in a Catholic-dominated empire, that every citizen should enjoy the freedom to investigate the nature of being and faith, and draw his or her own conclusions. It was, in other words, to make sure citizens enjoy freedom of religion.

Later, this constitution to amended to a bill of rights and duties that gave the government a Duty of Care towards its citizens:
- Citizens shall not be discriminated against
- Citizens can congregate freely
- Citizens can adhere to whatever religion (or lack thereof) they please
- Citizens can speak their mind, barring stuff like slander, hate-speech and discrimination
- Citizens shall have a safe environment that includes housing
- Citizens shall be educated
- Citizens shall have access to health-care

Those are some of my rights, and some of the government's duties of care.

In the light of this, government should be for the people. Not for corporations, not for an elite, but the actual people. In the Netherlands, we never speak of our Constitution. We take for granted that the system follows those tenets.

The United States' citizens have a perverted view on their Constitution. Under the guise of "Freedom", "The Second Amendment" and the notion that "Commies are bad", social help for citizens has eroded in the last fifty years. Nobody has a debate on safe housing, illiteracy or health care anymore as soon as someone starts yelling "socialism", "abortion" or "theytook'ur'guns".

Therefore, this is a silly debate that will be met with bemusedly raised eyebrows in most of Europe. Of course the government has a basic duty to close businesses, or to break up conglomerates, or to intervene in other ways if the greater good of the citizens is at risk.

This is, we feel, why the government exists.

With that said, this question seems to be a specifically American one. Not even the libertarian streak of the UK questions this notion, over here. My view is that Americans would do well to quit viewing their government as an enemy force that will potentially oppress them, and start seeing it as a bunch of folks that will provide support for the American people, because it has a duty of care. Hand in your damn guns, and do something to eradicate poverty and untimely death within your borders. And curb your moneyed elites: They are hollowing out your entire middle class.

So whoever said "no" to this question could ask themselves what the hell freedom is worth if you're toothless, living in a carboard box, in the dead of winter, with no food and a bad case of the Covid.

Ease of use and stability.

For many years I built gaming PC's, and there was always some shit that was unstable, just a bit slower than the rest, software that needed updating for this or that. Until I got sick of it (around the release of GTA IV, which I had a hell of a time running) and bought a Wii and after a while a PS3. The latter turned into a PS4, and that will turn into a PS5. I love it. it sits below the TV, unobtrusive. I pop it on and within 2 minutes I'm gaming away. Never had any issue with the thing. The Wii and PS3 are in the attic, set up with a screen in case I want to do some retro gaming. :)

In the meantime, my PC is an HP ProDesk mini PC. Silent, unobtrusive and with a high spec for what I do with it. I do "everything else" on that thing, some light photo editing, music curation, browsing, forum memberships and shopping.

The updates that @Austerity Empowers talk about: Sure. They happen. But they are usually quite quick and unobtrusive, and I can elect to play off line if I want.

There's an amount of behavioral research that suggests that if the top is not incompetent to begin with, they automatically become so if you over-pay them. Performance drops dramatically above and below certain levels of reward, so there seems to be a goldilocks-zone for appropriate reward for any behaviour if it's competence and performance you're after.