I run OpenBSD on my laptop. I love it, but I would recommend that beginners read some warnings on the label.
First, you will not have bluetooth. Second, it is slow in ways that will matter. As in, you will feel it, but not be annoyed by it (Especially with a web browser). Third, KDE plasma support is a work in progress (read: most people do not get KDE plasma on an OpenBSD installation today, although it won't stay like this forever).
With these disclaimers out of the way, I can heartily encourage it. I love having an operating system that I can trust. Things work, things are well doccumented and things are very very clean.
That's a fair assessment. One more thing I would add is that things you can frequently get working on FreeBSD (like JetBrains IDEs) might be significantly more challenging (or impossible) on an OpenBSD desktop.
I'm a long-time fan of OpenBSD (I started using it in 1999) and I strongly second reading the warnings on the label.
I’ve played around with FreeBSD before and have a WiFi dongle from when I put it on an RPI. I have an old X220 for these type of experiments, but I appreciate the warning
OpenBSD runs fine on my X220i, and its Intel WiFi (iwn) is supported. But, the firmware has to be downloaded separately, so you either have to copy the firmware onto a USB drive and run fw_update after installation, or plug in Ethernet before installing, and it'll download the firmware automatically after the first boot.
I was surprised how well it works in a lot of ways on my laptop (Thinkpad E585 with an aftermarket Intel wireless card). I will agree with the slowness, and I have managed to make it freeze once or twice, and fail to suspend properly quite a few times.
But in terms of "the Wi-fi actually worked without pulling teeth" it was streets ahead of both FreeBSD and Debian.
First, you will not have bluetooth. Second, it is slow in ways that will matter. As in, you will feel it, but not be annoyed by it (Especially with a web browser). Third, KDE plasma support is a work in progress (read: most people do not get KDE plasma on an OpenBSD installation today, although it won't stay like this forever).
With these disclaimers out of the way, I can heartily encourage it. I love having an operating system that I can trust. Things work, things are well doccumented and things are very very clean.