buying cds helps the project by providing funds to buy hardware, hold hackathons, and pay for other project expenses (including the openssh project). you get printed installation instructions, all of the pre-compiled packages, and stickers. cds can be pre-ordered and received days or weeks before the ftp release.
however, we do make iso images of the installation sets available on the ftp servers (installXX.iso) and have for quite some time.
alternatively, you can download cdXX.iso which is just the installer, then boot to it and let it fetch and install just the sets you want over ftp or http. or download bsd.rd and pxe network boot it. or download floppyXX.fs and make a floppy disk.
The OpenBSD ISOs are a few meg, and take a few seconds to download, even from a slow mirror. Compare that with downloading 700 meg ISOs for other distros.
An experienced OpenBSD user almost can go from nothing to installed in less time than it takes to download the Ubuntu ISOs on release day.
1) It's actually pretty easy to install, once you get past the whole "it's different" bit. I had no real trouble.
2) Updating/upgrading is a PITA. Having to upgrade by patching source code -- WTF?
What do you do if you have a fleet of 100s of OpenBSD machines? I may be spoiled by apt, but I can upgrade the several hundred machines I'm responsible for in an almost trivial manner. (And updating a single machine with apt is absolutely trivial.) That doesn't seem to be possible with OpenBSD. (I suppose you could write a custom shell script to do the update, and distribute that to your machines, but...certainly not trivial.)
What's more, I would be willing (if not completely comfortable) to update a remote Ubuntu/Debian box to the next release -- that doesn't seem like a good idea (or even possible under some circumstances) with OpenBSD.
This seems even stranger when you consider the security reputation of OpenBSD, and how important updates are for security, even for something as well-audited and well-written as OpenBSD.
Am I missing something here?
[1] http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/openbsd-misc/2009/2/8/4924...
And if you're really a tinkerer you shouldn't have much trouble installing without the CDs.
Yes, you will have to read the fine manual. But their man pages are to die for! A real treat; up to date and complete. Actually useful.
They're actually....really really really useful.
It is, though.
But not OpenBSD! I don't like how they don't provide ISO images as an excuse to make people buy their CDs.
I understand that its not meant as a Desktop environment, but this also eliminates many tinkerers who would run OpenBSD for few days just to know more what its about.
Is being tinkerer friendly such a bad thing!