I use openbsd on servers myself. I've first been surprised by the completeness and cleanliness of the system. All configurations look the same, program flags are boringly similar, thus making the OS surprisingly easy to tame.
On servers, I barely found a software lacking in the port tree, and for the one missing, I could easily find other alternatives.

When I wanted to try new/unknown software (by that, I mean MY softwares or things not in the famous AUR), I just used typical make/make install because I couldn't bother writing a port (a bit too complex for me, I must admit).

I tried using it on my notebook. Installation went smoothly, startup as well. cwm is awesome (I've been using it for years, even on linux, and still use it today).
As usual, it comes with everything needed to use a desktop environment. The only reason I had to drop it is because my wifi adapter is not supported. I'm considering buying an USB adapter though, to unkeash the full power of my notebook ;)

When it comes from lacking software, I've been used to packaging things myself (I run crux at home, which lack many software, but has dead simple oackaging recipes). I wrote my own pack manager to get around this, and use it to package things myself and track what I install. It is only one small step further than make/make install, so you get the idea.