The NetSurf browser the author tried out has multiple frontends. Two run on OpenBSD that I know of, the “default” GTK frontend and an SDL‐based framebuffer frontend. As was pointed out, GTK has a rather sizeable number of dependencies; building the framebuffer frontend instead would save a lot of time.
(author) Is there a way to specifically build the framebuffer version from the ports tree? I didn't see one.
/usr/ports/www/netsurf/netsurf-fb/
Mainline Dillo runs faster and smoother, it's just an fltk + git clone && configure +make install away.
I don't think these machines achieved much popularity in China either, as standard PCs were far more common and compatible with the existing software base.
the keyboard and trackpad are internally PS/2.
Interesting that the PC influence is still there, although I'm pretty sure a MIPS doesn't have them on port 60h/64h, or indeed any I/O ports. I remember having a similar moment of surprise when I played around with an ARM VM and discovered it had a "VGA-compatible" GPU emulating an old ISA-class chip.
A decade’s worth of SGI machines combined MIPS processors with PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports.
(author) My understanding is that they're wired into the AMD southbridge which provides them over memory mapped I/O.
The wsconscfg problem with multiple screens, whatever it exactly is, is decidedly odd. According to this, the display is being driven as smfb0 in what is largely a dumb framebuffer mode, no acceleration, no GPU, no fancy high jinks whatsoever. wscons/wsdisplay should have no difficulty with multiple screens on that sort of thing.
No computer is obsolete with a BSD. I still use an n270 netbook daily.
Same here. I have a Samsung NC10 netbook with that same CPU which I recently converted from Debian to NetBSD when they dropped 32-bit support.
Acer aspire one with NetBSD
It’s tough to find them on eBay; I wonder what the right search terms are?
I think they're super uncommon in the west.
I think they're also super useless, to be honest. Incredibly slow. Linux support continued to degrade the entire time I owned mine. The keyboard and display are far too small to be usable. The graphics chip accelerates basically nothing.
I sold mine [1] on eBay back in October. I hope the new owner enjoys it more than I did :)
[1] https://mattst88.com/computers/yeeloong/
I still think it is very cursed to see that image of RMS using that laptop despite I was shocked to see it 12 years ago. Still shocks me to this day.
what is shocking about it?
I think because it's RMS champion of digital openess using using an archaine Chinese laptop, it's the dichotomy of China providing a product that's essentially more free (of binary blob firmware) then a western equivalent laptop. Take heed and dispare oh ye providers of win modems!