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Security by secrecy is a red herring. Look to OpenBSD for a _very_ secure, free OS for multiple architectures.

--C

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Finally, we'd be remiss in ignoring OpenBSD in any discussion of top open-source security products. It registered high in our e-mail survey, and we promise to take a more active look at it in future columns.

\end{quote}

More information about OpenBSD can be found on http://www.openbsd.org/

Information about the security can be found at http://www.openbsd.org/security.html and http://www.openbsd.org/plus.html

\begin{quote}

Finally, we'd be remiss in ignoring OpenBSD in any discussion of top open-source security products. It registered high in our e-mail survey, and we promise to take a more active look at it in future columns.

\end{quote}

More information about OpenBSD can be found on http://www.openbsd.org/

Information about the security can be found at http://www.openbsd.org/security.html and http://www.openbsd.org/plus.html

\begin{quote}

Finally, we'd be remiss in ignoring OpenBSD in any discussion of top open-source security products. It registered high in our e-mail survey, and we promise to take a more active look at it in future columns.

\end{quote}

More information about OpenBSD can be found on http://www.openbsd.org/

Information about the security can be found at http://www.openbsd.org/security.html and http://www.openbsd.org/plus.html

For me, NetBSD rocks. I love being able to build my entire userland by typing "cd /usr/src && make build". I love have a cool package system that automatically FTPs and builds requisite packages for me, from source. (I particularly love how every single binary on my box, with the exceptions of Quake II and Netscape, were built right here on my box!)

I like how unified NetBSD is. I started off using NetBSD because it was the only Unix that would run on my old mac68k hardware. I stuck with it when I got new hardware because I just like the feeling of wholeness and quality that NetBSD exudes. (I prefer it to FreeBSD, which is very nearly as good IMHO, and I definitely prefer it to Red Hat, which I tried once and rapidly removed.)

One thing that I'm curious about, that may be a mis-understanding on my part, is the package systems on non-i386 GNU/Linux platforms. How integrated are alternative architectures? On NetBSD, I can cd into /usr/pkgsrc and make pretty much any package on any platform, without having to ftp anything manually. Are things this slick on, say, Linux/Alpha or Linux/StrongARM, or does someone have to port each package and make it available for FTP somewhere, and hope that people can find it? That's my current impression.

The last point is that NetBSD (and FreeBSD, and I assume OpenBSD) does Linux emulation. With this, I can keep my comfortable, nice environment, and still use stuff like Quake that has only been released for GNU/Linux. (Or Solaris, in that case, but that doesn't apply.) That why, for instance, I wrote to Blizzard and said I wanted Diablo II to run under Linux. I told them that I was running NetBSD, but that NetBSD could run Linux binaries, and that a Linux-native Diablo II would be something I'd buy.

So, the upshot: It's cool that we're running on UltraSPARCS now. It's not half-bad hardware, in my experience, although IMHO you're trading quality for performance as compared to fast Intel hardware, which tends to be faster but which isn't half as meaty in terms of... quality.

PS: If you've never run NetBSD, give it a try. It's free, and it's neat.

If you look on some of the *BSD pages NetBSD and FreeBSD you'll see that at least one of them (NetBSD) is being actively ported to PA-RISC.

HP300 was relatively easy, as it used a more "open" CPU, the Motorola 680x0 series. (The "old" processors in the HP800 series is the Moto also.) The new HP700 series (and HP800 that have been upgraded) use PA-RISC, which HP developed in-house, and therefore, keeps wraps on the specs.


Cheers,
Ken Crandall

OpenBSD runs ~13142 shell account here. It runs stable for us and nobody break in, yet 8-D ...
OpenBSD project depends on donations, hardware, cd sales. The project developers can expect some money and hardware from my company in the next couple of years. I bought a cd for myself even ;)
OpenBSD Daily Changelog. Browsing source on the Web and The OpenBSD FAQ

or try NetBSD..For more information, read NetBSD-current changes. Mailing Lists

OpenBSD runs ~13142 shell account here. It runs stable for us and nobody break in, yet 8-D ...
OpenBSD project depends on donations, hardware, cd sales. The project developers can expect some money and hardware from my company in the next couple of years. I bought a cd for myself even ;)
OpenBSD Daily Changelog. Browsing source on the Web and The OpenBSD FAQ

or try NetBSD..For more information, read NetBSD-current changes. Mailing Lists

OpenBSD runs ~13142 shell account here. It runs stable for us and nobody break in, yet 8-D ...
OpenBSD project depends on donations, hardware, cd sales. The project developers can expect some money and hardware from my company in the next couple of years. I bought a cd for myself even ;)
OpenBSD Daily Changelog. Browsing source on the Web and The OpenBSD FAQ

or try NetBSD..For more information, read NetBSD-current changes. Mailing Lists