OpenBSD Journal

OpenBSD 5.8's third song announced

Contributed by pitrh on from the 4,000 holes in OpenSSL dept.

The third of the expected four OpenBSD 5.8 release songs, A Year in the Life, has been released.

The song is available in mp3 and ogg formats, with lyrics mainly about the LibreSSL story (remember this?), but as the song notes point out,

The pattern of LibreSSL development is a pattern that has repeated itself many times in OpenBSD -- a decision is made by a few people to do something, followed by action, and letting the world share it if they like it (such as with OpenSSH).

Bob Beck's full announcement reads:

Subject: But wait, there's more.. another 5.8 song!
From: Bob Beck <beck () openbsd ! org>
Date: 2015-09-01 16:24:04

Coming soon to http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html is the next 5.8 release song "A Year In The Life".

I seem to have this bad habit of talking to Theo about release themes when drinking alcohol, and it brings out the poet (My inner Weird Al) in me. Then I get cajoled into finishing the Opus before release time.

We've done stuff about LibreSSL before, but this particular song just fit with the release theme. While the lyrics can speak for themselves, "A Year In The Life" is representative of more than just LibreSSL. The pattern of LibreSSL development is a pattern that has repeated itself many times in OpenBSD -- a decision is made by a few people to do something, followed by action, and letting the world share it if they like it (such as with OpenSSH). To the developers actually doing the work, reactions to such efforts can often seem surreal, or irrelevant. The juxtaposition of working on the very real with the surreal going on around you can often make working on such projects feel like you're in a bit of an altered reality.. Sort of like the song. A number of us have had many years like this in the last 20.

Anyhow, please enjoy

-Bob

Enjoy the tune, then please head over to the OpenBSD Store for release CDs or other swag, or to the donations page to donate to the continued OpenBSD development effort.

(Comments are closed)


Comments
  1. By Jorden Verwer (94.209.56.203) on

    1967 called, they want their incompetent audio engineers back.

    Really, I understand that they're trying to parody some old Beatles song here, but does that mean that you have to copy their horrible mixing style as well? Panning lead vocals out of center (and especially panning them hard left or right) is seriously retarded and one of the reasons why many people (including me) seek out the mono mixes for music from this era. It's not just The Beatles, many of their contemporaries made the same mistake. But everybody learned from it and started releasing better mixes soon thereafter. Unfortunately these vintage stereo mixes are almost unlistenable, especially on headphones. It's absurd that somebody would try to copy that idea in 2015. If you wanted to be true to the era (which is a valid desire), you should have mixed it in mono.

    Generally I love OpenBSD's release song, but this one's a failure. Ah well, nobody's perfect.

    Comments
    1. By Anonymous Coward (124.170.20.73) on

      wow…

    2. By Just Another OpenBSD User (77.85.136.174) on

      > Ah well, nobody's perfect.

      I doubt anyone would highly appreciate help from a sound engineer with
      this attitude towards any form of art, a representation of music as
      close to the original feel and spirit as your post modern times damaged
      ears can get, anyways.

      My understanding is that this song is a nice wheel in the time machine,
      and it is pretty darned good carrying people there even for a short
      while. Imagination, the most powerful force known to man. Paired with
      correct implementation of sane software ideas, what more can be said to
      properly describe the concept and product quality above praise and hope
      others learn from such courageous effort.

      Or at least reuse the LibreSSL so they benefit from the reliability of
      the supported software tools.

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