Re: basics

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:28:25 -0800 (PST) wickedstuff
<[email protected]> wrote:

> thanks for the info, once you install openbsd can you update/upgrade
> it later on with the newer version that is released, with out loosing
> anything? 

Yes. 

> is it a fairly straight forward thing to do? 

Yes.

The upgrade process for each release is documented and available
in the FAQ on the openbsd.org website.

http://www.openbsd.org/faq/index.html

Look for the "Upgrade Guide" on the left hand side.

> do you still have to run a "software" firewall with bsd, or is one
> built into the bsd program itself? 

As it seems you know, all firewalls are "software" by definition.
OpenBSD comes with a very advanced firewall called "pf" (for "Packet
Filter"). In the link above you'll see a link for the "PF User's Guide"
which will walk you through the basics.

> also what about anti-virus
> software? i dont think its required but now's the time to ask. 

clamav is available on OpenBSD if you want it.

>I dont
> spose anybody that has openbsd wants to try downloading mt4 
> http://www2.interbankfx.com/ibs/welcome.php?group=CFOSFX
> demo account, just to see if it downloads and loads up, then obviously
> delate the program after and report back, it would save me installing
> openbsd and finding out MT4 does load? id be very greatful if anybody
> was willing to do this and im sure new ppl to the forum later on
> would be most greatful as well. 

The person who wants to know if MT4 will run on OpenBSD is you, and
possibly only you, so your rhetoric of other "new ppl" is completely
disingenuous.

You need to grasp a fundamental point: 

***  People who run OpenBSD *enjoy* doing their own work.  ***

If you do not *enjoy* doing your own work to figure things out, answer
your own questions, and find your own solutions, then you'll probably be
better off running some other operating system. Only if you show your
own effort will people around here be willing to give you a hand.

With this said, I know how much of a royal pain in the ass trading
applications can be, simply because I've dealt with them since their
inception. I did look at the registration link you posted, and I even
tried to look up more about "MT4" but I didn't get very far. From the
few glances I made, "MT4" seems to be "MetaTrader 4" and exists for a
few different platforms (MS-Windows, Mobile, ?). It also seems this
program gets "re-branded" by various brokerages. Unfortunately, I did
not find any real technical details about the program. If it is just a
native MS-Windows executable, making it run with in a virtual machine
might be possible, but the only thing you'd really gain is instability
and decreased performance.

On the other hand, if it is a JAVA application (wrapped within a
MS-Windows installer), it might be possible to get it running natively
on OpenBSD. I've had success getting a few Java based trading programs
to run on OpenBSD, such as www.thinkorswim.com. Recently, there has
also been some open source work done in the trading platform field,
such as marketcetera.com and probably a lot of others that I don't know
about.

http://www.thinkorswim.com
http://www.marketcetera.com

> The comments made to go  have a look at "i386-laptops.html " excuse my
> ignorance on this one, is this on this forum website? or do i cut n
> paste that 386 into my browser? thanks everybody coming down to my
> "basic" level its all part of learning and i appreciate it. 

Everyone starts somewhere! :-)

As with all new things, it will take some time for you to get used to
the nomenclature typically used on the openbsd mailing lists. It's
common for people to post "something.html" rather than giving the full
URL to the page. In this case, you were given the wrong page name. The
correct page name is "i386-laptop.html" (without the "s"), so the full
URL would be:

http://www.openbsd.org/i386-laptop.html

Another thing you'll need to get used to is the way people type
references to the software manuals ("man pages") available on OpenBSD
systems. For example, the manual for the "ls" command is typically
written as "ls(1)" where the number of the section is placed in
parenthesis. You can access the manuals either from the command line,
or through a web browser.

	$ man 1 ls
or
	http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi	

Needless to say, reading the entire FAQ and any relevant manuals is
always expected. If you get a terse reply like "ls(1)" it means the
answer you want is in the man page you failed to read.

-- 
J.C. Roberts