Advice on using Obsd on Mac Mini as main desktop (long)

I am starting to re-think my idea of using OpenBSD on the
Mac Mini as 
my main desktop and I now I'm starting to wonder if it is
going to be 
too much hassle (RE: Problems shutting down or rebooting on
Mac Mini 
obsd 4.0).

Up until a few months ago I had 4 machines in my office
running almost 
all the time (2 OpenBSD - 2 Linux).  One of those was the
OpenBSD Mac 
Mini which was my main desktop.  A few months ago I decided
to 
consolodate down to two machines to save energy and reduce
the noise in 
here.  I kept the obsd firewall and built a new (quieter?)
amd64 
machine for my desktop.

That plan so far hasn't worked as well as I had hoped.  The
obsd 
firewall machine alone is too noisy and the amd64 machine
has many 
problem areas, which I won't get into here to keep this
brief.

So my latest plan was to eliminate the old K6 obsd firewall
machine and 
replace it with the Mac Mini which would be both the
firewall/gateway 
and my desktop.  I am a little nervous about having my
desktop live 
right on the internet, but on the other hand it is OpenBSD
which I feel 
is pretty secure and it is not x86.  My theory being that
attackers 
will be going after x86 machines more than PowerPC?

But now I'm starting rethink the wisdom of this idea.  I've
decided I 
am still nervous about having the firewall machine and my
desktop be 
the same machine even if it is running OpenBSD.  It seems
like having 
two machines to crack into before getting to any good data
is 
inherently more secure?  Does anyone have any feelings on
this?

Problem #2: I purchased a SMC USB to Ethernet adapter to use
as my 
external interface.  It was listed as working on OpenBSD but
when I 
plug it into the Mini errors start spewing out the console
and don't 
stop until I unplug it.  It then occurred to me that perhaps
this 
adapater only works on OpenBSD x86?

Problem #3: I was reading through previous messages on this
list and 
noticed there is grief with running Open Office on OpenBSD
ppc.  I had 
thought that only parts of OpenOffice required Java?  What
is the state 
of OpenOffice on PowerPC?  Out of curiosity, since Sun is
releasing 
Java as open source will we eventually have a JVM on
OpenBSD?

Misc. other things like Real video and Flash players are
probably out 
of the question?  They have been part of my grief on amd64.

I think I have almost talked myself out of this idea.  I
really loved 
using OpenBSD on the Mini as my main desktop before, but I
had a Linux 
box to fall back to if I couldn't get something to work.

Thanks for any thoughts.
  -Scott

I don't really have any good advice, so I should keep my
mouth shut.  
But I have been fussing with a similar set of data points,
so I'll  
offer opinions of the worst sort -- uneducated and lacking
in  
experience:

On 2006/12/09, at 19:48, jsexmission.com wrote:

> I am starting to re-think my idea of using OpenBSD on
the Mac Mini  
> as my main desktop and I now I'm starting to wonder if
it is going  
> to be too much hassle (RE: Problems shutting down or
rebooting on  
> Mac Mini obsd 4.0).
>
> Up until a few months ago I had 4 machines in my office
running  
> almost all the time (2 OpenBSD - 2 Linux).  One of
those was the  
> OpenBSD Mac Mini which was my main desktop.  A few
months ago I  
> decided to consolodate down to two machines to save
energy and  
> reduce the noise in here.  I kept the obsd firewall and
built a new  
> (quieter?) amd64 machine for my desktop.

Living in Japan where electricity is comparatively
expensive, I've  
been thinking about similar things. What I want is an ARM
box for the  
firewall, but I think Soekris has boards with AMD CPUs at
prices that  
are much better that I have been able to find so far for
ARM. There  
is the Kurobako with a PPC 604 and not quite enough RAM for
my taste,  
but it has no expandability. Price-wise, the advantage of
the Soekris  
CPUs over the other options is the expandability.

I've thought about ethernet over firewire, but ...

> That plan so far hasn't worked as well as I had hoped. 
The obsd  
> firewall machine alone is too noisy and the amd64
machine has many  
> problem areas, which I won't get into here to keep this
brief.

Yeah, I think it's a little early on the curve there, still.

> So my latest plan was to eliminate the old K6 obsd
firewall machine  
> and replace it with the Mac Mini which would be both
the firewall/ 
> gateway and my desktop.  I am a little nervous about
having my  
> desktop live right on the internet, but on the other
hand it is  
> OpenBSD which I feel is pretty secure and it is not
x86.  My theory  
> being that attackers will be going after x86 machines
more than  
> PowerPC?
>
> But now I'm starting rethink the wisdom of this idea. 
I've decided  
> I am still nervous about having the firewall machine
and my desktop  
> be the same machine even if it is running OpenBSD.  It
seems like  
> having two machines to crack into before getting to any
good data  
> is inherently more secure?  Does anyone have any
feelings on this?

As someone who has hosted his personal website on an old
iBook  
running an old Mac OS X behind a homegrade ADSL
modem/router/ 
firewall, I'll say that I'd rather not do something like
that if I  
had anything of real value on the inside. It's not the
number of  
machines to get through so much as the number of footholds
on a  
particular machine.

The reason I'm still running Mac OS X is that the input
method for  
Japanese on Mac OS X is useable for my wife.

> Problem #2: I purchased a SMC USB to Ethernet adapter
to use as my  
> external interface.  It was listed as working on
OpenBSD but when I  
> plug it into the Mini errors start spewing out the
console and  
> don't stop until I unplug it.  It then occurred to me
that perhaps  
> this adapater only works on OpenBSD x86?

I'd be interested in hearing about that, too.

> Problem #3: I was reading through previous messages on
this list  
> and noticed there is grief with running Open Office on
OpenBSD  
> ppc.  I had thought that only parts of OpenOffice
required Java?   
> What is the state of OpenOffice on PowerPC?  Out of
curiosity,  
> since Sun is releasing Java as open source will we
eventually have  
> a JVM on OpenBSD?

Do you mean openbsd or openbsd/ppc?

> Misc. other things like Real video and Flash players
are probably  
> out of the question?  They have been part of my grief
on amd64.
>
> I think I have almost talked myself out of this idea. 
I really  
> loved using OpenBSD on the Mini as my main desktop
before, but I  
> had a Linux box to fall back to if I couldn't get
something to work.

I'd keep the backup boxes around even if they're usually
powered  
down. (I just blew away my FC5 box trying to install Ubuntu
in the  
other drive today, and I am remembering there's a reason I
like to  
not do that, specifically that I can't burn DVDs with that
box not  
booting. Ubuntu's LVM formatting is not yet quite ready for
prime- 
time if anyone is curious.)

> Thanks for any thoughts.
>  -Scott

FWIW