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CompactBSD for Embedded Projects

Posted by michael on from the bsd-inside dept.

miggidy_mac writes "FatPort (a wireless Internet service provider in Vancouver, BC) just released CompactBSD. It's a set of tools that allow you to build your own customized, lightweight distribution of OpenBSD and then burns it onto compact flash (or similar) so that it can be run on an embedded PC platform (like FatPort's own FatPoint). CompactBSD takes the security and networking features of OpenBSD that we know and love, and combines them with ease-of-build and small footprint, which is great for embedded devices. Check out the project on SourceForge."

4 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. It is official: *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    It is official; Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD is dying

  2. Re:My Faith is Restored by Chan01 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    why is BSD dying and why is linux taking over? I personally like both of them and have no real preference for one.

  3. Failure *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    So why now? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  4. This is neat and all.. BUT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    OpenBSD is not dying. It's not dead. Its a very nice flavor of UNIX. These things are not the problem. The problem IS OpenBSD's security. They are simply not secure. I will explain, please don't flame until you hear me out:

    1. cvs.openbsd.org was compromised in December.

    2. The entire OpenBSD tree was modified.

    3. Theo does not disclose security vulnerabilities
    as he should. Theo did not willingly disclose the
    compromise. Only due to pressure from his peers
    was anything mentioned. There has been backdoors
    in the kernel, openssh, and numerous other areas
    since OpenBSD 3.0.

    4. The integrity of OpenBSD can no longer be trusted, one would have to audit the base distro
    and OpenSSH to understand the true nature of this
    problem. The backdoors being inserted into the code are not obvious. They are carefully obscured as "bad coding practice" - these items have been audited and fixed before, but the code in question
    was modified AGAIN. Theo simply cannot reaudit the
    entire tree again in the amount of time required.

    5. OpenBSD developers are aiding in the entities attacking it. They are inserting these changes willingly into the tree, so no matter how often Theo audits, there will always be a backdoor. He would have to fire almost his entire staff to get the moles out.

    6. OpenBSD's kernel is remotely exploitable. Enough said.

    I have migrated my entire network away from OpenBSD. I urge someone to take up the project and audit the code, and fork it off. It's a great idea, a great package, and very lightweight, but it is no longer secure.