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Not Just a Cleanup Any More: LibreSSL Project Announced
An anonymous reader writes "As some of you may know, the OpenBSD team has started cleaning up the OpenSSL code base. LibreSSL is primarily developed by the OpenBSD Project, and its first inclusion into an operating system will be in OpenBSD 5.6. In the wake of Heartbleed, the OpenBSD group is creating a simpler, cleaner version of the dominant OpenSSL. Theo de Raadt, founder and leader of OpenBSD and OpenSSH, tells ZDNet that the project has already removed 90,000 lines of C code and 150,000 lines of content. The project further promises multi-OS support once they have proper funding and the right portability team in place. Please consider donating to support LibreSSL via the OpenBSD foundation."
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It's not a bad idea. OpenSSL has become unwieldy, which has been known for quite some time. A major refactoring is long overdue. Does it matter if the project changes name? OpenSSL 2.0 or LibreSSL - what's the difference? The OpenSSL guys don't have the resources/time/funding/whatever to do it, and the OpenBSD guys apparently do.
> Even after all those changes, the codebase is still API compatible.
It's going to be a drop in replacement for OpenSSL. Same idea as the MariaDB fork of MySQL. Where is the "bad idea" here?
The key reason OpenSSL is so popular in US is because the project is on top of FIPS certifications. LibreSSL might cure cancer, but very few system integrators will use it unless it has certified module.
SSSL - Secure SSL