New to opnsense. How different is it?

[singerjj]

I did this on a whim so I hope it doesn't come back and bite me. I'm upgrading hardware to 10G and trying opnsense was never part of the plan. I don't really want to get into it but I've wanted to explore alternatives since before opnsense and the split.

It's now or never because I have brand new 10G hardware (and switching) waiting to be unboxed tonight. If I don't install opnsense now and try it, I'll install what I'm used to running and probably never get around to looking at alternatives (opnsense). Making the account and downloading the software was a huge step. (I even put it on a USB to install it :) I believe the 10G upgrade/hardware swap is scheduled for the evening of Friday, October 8, 2021 so if I install now I'll have a few weeks to mess with things and break stuff before it needs to go live.

What do I need to know? Is it basically the same? Will it be natural or intuitive? Stuff in the same/similar places? This is also my first >1GbE hardware install with SFP+ which doesn't make me feel any more confident about trying something new. Where can I go to learn more about opnsense and hardware encryption or hardware encryption accelerators? How about LTE and 4g/5g? Am I going to have any weird surprises?

[sorano]

Since you did not mention what you are comparing it against it's hard to give a good answer.

However, I can say this. Just go for it, it's really good.

[lilsense]

if you got a particular netgate, opnsense may not work... just a heads up... :)

[Patrick M. Hausen]

You can give it a spin on your desktop system by using my project here:
https://github.com/punktDe/vagrant-opnsense

That should at least enable you to decide if you like the UI.

HTH,
Patrick