Presented by

  • Andrew Hewus Fresh

    Andrew Hewus Fresh
    https://afresh1.com

    Andrew has been using OpenBSD for over 20 years and afresh1@openbsd.org for about ten now and in that time has contributed at least a week worth of effort to the project. He primary keeps L<perl(1)> up to date in the base system and maintains a few ports to have something to test those perl updates. He hasn't used OpenBSD professionally since before he got his account, but continually wishes other things were as nice to use. He has also restarted and has been organizing the BSD Pizza Night in Portland, OR since 2014, shortly after moving there.

Abstract

OpenBSD provides the utility fw_update(8) to handle firmware loading for hardware from manufacturers whose licensing isn't compatible with our base system. We will take a trip into the history of fw_update(8), its structure and why it exists. A recent rewrite provides an illustration of the value OpenBSD places on simplicity and user experience.