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OpenBSD Gains Commercial Support
Dave Brooks writes "It looks like a company called Network Security Technologies, Inc. will be providing commercial support for OpenBSD Integration. This is a huge step for the OpenBSD community." Good to see. Theo, in an impromptu interview, said that he is happy others believe in OpenBSD, and that the project has a much better financial situation these days, though it is still supported entirely by CD and shirt sales.
I've been playing with BSD as of late, and I must say, I'm enjoying the experience.
I have alot of trouble understanding where the angst between Linux and BSD derives, particularly among the hacker cores. My guess is that the semi-infamous bad attitude of BSD developers was directed against Linux in its growth years, and after years of having their work called immature and unstable(even when it began being much less so), Linux developers and users completed the "circle" of mutual distrust.
I wasn't around back then, so I'd like some better perspective.
Regardless, BSD has been quite the experience. OpenBSD, with its security-centric design, is something I plan to play around with for the specific reason that existing Linux Distributions run wayyyyyy too many network services by default, and the idea of an OS I can slap on a box and trust to be secure is very appealing.
Hearing that Theo's baby, OpenBSD, now has commercial support behind it is something that I am proud to hear. Theo's focus on security is making Linux better, and many of the apps that run on BSD were originally developed on Linux.
Congratulations to everyone involved.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
Warning: The comments contained here are from a very new OpenBSD user... (Operation system in place for about a week. Got interested in it about three weeks ago).
No, OpenBSD's install is not as friendly as the new Linux installs. The disk partitioning is really exciting. Hint: Start with a totally empty disk. When you manage to get partitions where you want them, put a small DOS partition on and work around it. Another hint: If you don't grab a calculator or at least a piece of paper, you are either very good at memorizing numbers and doing math in your head or you just nuked that partition you were trying to work around. The first time I installed it on a Compaq (with the configuration partition), I wiped the disk completely clean. Not even the OpenBSD partition survived the install! I think it took me two or three additional attempts (i.e., reloads) before I got it right. Suddenly, it becomes easy, even logical 8). I'm *very* serious about practicing on a "spare" hard disk first.
I found the FTP install actually worked very nicely with OpenBSD, something I could NOT get to work with the otherwise more friendly FreeBSD.
I will dispute any claims that documentation is better on Linux than *BSD. The Linux documentation is certainly BIGGER, at least on mall store shelves, but hardly better. You see, Linux is a rapidly moving target. The details of every distribution change every release, and in fact, some of the products might even be perceived as completely different OSs by a non-X familiar person. While I have been playing with Linux for YEARS (key word: Playing. I'm not yet a Linux master), I've been pleased that OpenBSD seems to be more "familiar" quickly based on my Unix experience. *BSD is much more standard Unix than Linux is. A book on RedHat v5.2 will not do much to help you get RedHat 6.0 up and running.
This is good from a learning perspective. Unix books cover both OpenBSD and FreeBSD much better than they do Linux. On the other hand, I really miss 'bash'. HOWEVER, *I* will impliment bash, I will know how it got there, I will know how to remove it or change it or whatever. You loose this in the modern Linux distributions. It is all done for you.
Another problem with Linux documentation is the quality. Everyone sees it as a cash cow, everyone is writing a book. Most of them stink. Several years ago, I bought a book on Linux. Durring my first five minutes with the book, I spotted THREE blatent FACTUAL errors (Linus wrote Minix then improved it to Linux was one of them). A few are good. Most are obsolete.
As far as I can tell for multiple booting, to boot OpenBSD, set the partition active. Therefore, it will probably work with most boot management software.
Hardware support: Well, OpenBSD seems to support "standard" stuff. IDE, main-stream SCSI. Haven't played with the sound. It recognized every network card I threw at it (at least four totally different cards). Forget USB for the time being, and I wouldn't wait up.
A *BIG* comment: I know a lot of people (I do it myself once in a while) seem to think the magic of a new system is installing it. This is not true. Not at all. As long as you think installing it is the major hurdle, you haven't really learned the product. The magic is what you do ONCE it is installed. How you set it up for efficient use. How you back it up. How you recover it when you woof a hard disk (or a few strategic files). How you recover it when you woof or upgrade a main board. I clean up a lot of networks set up by people who didn't understand that installing the software is just the very, very tip of the iceberg.
Try it. On an empty hard disk at first. 8)
Nick.