OpenBSD Review at DistroWatch

jpkunst writes "Robert Storey at DistroWatch com has written an in-depth and favorable review of OpenBSD: OpenBSD - For Your Eyes Only. 'The first OpenBSD memento I ever saw was a T-shirt with a picture of a cop chasing a script kiddie. That image remained etched in my mind for well over a year before I finally got my hands on a copy of this fine OS. Now that I have it installed on my machine, I only wonder what took me so long.'"

Comments

this should be a definitive guide to installing OS

[phaetonic]

The article is very clear and concise. While BSD was not trivial to install the very first time, it isn't too difficult for those with experience. However even noobs can install OpenBSD with this article.

BTW - A good idea is to install OpenBSD on a dedicated secondary hard disk, such as a 4GB or something that you can find for free now a days. That way you will not have to worry about ruining your partitions on your primary disk, as OpenBSD is a bit scarier with writing to your MBR than, lets say, the GUI for GRUB in the RedHat installer.

Re:BSD FAR from dead

[evilviper]

I wonder if BSD would benefit from changing to a similar development model as Linux. There sem to be relatively few active BSD developers, and although they do a good job, they must have a bad time trying to keep up with the latest hardware and technologies available.

Now that is funny! :-)

Perhaps you would like to know that FreeBSD usually gets new hardware support before Linux... It some cases, LONG before Linux... USB & Firewire support come to mind immediately, but there are plenty of other examples as well.

Re:Firewalling on BSD

[adiposity]

Something that might interest users of FreeBSD who envy pf:

pf on FreeBSD

-Dan

OpenBSD: First Impression

[karniv0re]

I am somewhere between newbie and novice when it comes to *nix. When I decided I needed a good secure operating system for my job to put their web server on, I realized that I didn't know or want to learn all the steps it takes to secure Linux.

So I decided on OpenBSD (that whole "secure by default" thing kinda enticed me). I picked up a copy of "Secure Architectures with OpenBSD" and went to work. Well, then I realized that it probably would have been faster to learn the steps to securing Linux, but I am really liking OpenBSD so far.

I can honestly say, installation was incredibly easy once I RTFM, and I'm finding it is that way with most stuff. And the things that I have hit snags on (making PHP and MySQL play nice together) have been resolved by a few posts to misc@openbsd.org.

And OpenBSD's clean filesystem makes it a lot easier to learn Unix than other OSs.

Oh, and did I mention that Ports and Packages kick ass?

Re:*BSD is dying

[brunokummel]

I guess the best bet for someone who just wants to try out BSD is Freesbie

A BSD newbie must also know that all BSDs have the same advantage over Linux. That is good documentation for development and for POSIX patterns.
But im not trying to start a flamewar, even because BSDs may not be the best OS for everyone.
for regular users, or for bigger OS flexibility, i would sugest to stay with our pal Tux! (ive used it for long time =) )

but if you want to build a stable server in which youll need to do some secure,well-documented development, BSD is always a good choice.
One must only have in mind that the BSDs are not all equal as ive read on earlier posts!! (people were talking about FreeBSD when the topic clearly states about Open).
just for the record:
NetBSD >runs on everything with 32 bits. (including toasters =D)
FreeBSD > good performance and stability. (My personal choice ! )
OpenBSD > awesome security but bad performance compared to the other 2.(what i have to work with in college)

just thought that someone needed to clear that out!

Metawire.org

[azuretek]

If you want to give OpenBSD a try without installing it head over to http://metawire.org. They offer free OpenBSD shells, they've got a pretty big community and it's a great place to play and learn with OpenBSD.