advantages of openbsd over freebsd

[fivepesos]

ive been using linux for around 2 years and i want to get into openbsd. but i dont want recommendations of the easiest bsd to use. i want to know what will make me learn the most.

i got started on slackware linux, as opposed to mandrake or redhat for that reason. slackware is more challenging at first but i hit the ground running and loved linux since.

i want to do the same for bsd. which one, and why? any links to documents would be appreciated. any linuxdoc.org equivalent?

my good friend, a compsci major and unix guru, recommend openbsd over freebsd, because "freebsd sucks". now i know lots of people who love freebsd, and i want to know why to choose one over the other.

openbsd's claim of security is good, but wouldnt freebsd have similar security. installation dificulty isnt a problem, provided they have thorough documentation. i tried openbsd and the install documents we less then adequate.

let me know? and lets not flame. lets leave that to microsoft sheep.

 

[DaHitman]

OpenBSD is very nice... its about the most secure OS that I know of, and its rock solid.

I used it for a couple of years as my firewall/router/email/web server... Its got a very cool single floppy install if you have a net connection, you just boot off the floppy and it installs directly off the net automatically..no need to download iso's or make cd's etc... thats cool..

Recently, I just switched to Redhat 7.1 because the new "statefull" firewalling code in Linux 2.4 kernel is amazing, I was able to go from a "default accept" to a "default deny" because of that new iptables and I love it.. well worth the upgrade.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I am an avid OpenBSD user. I also love FreeBSD. FreeBSD in no way sucks. In fact, last I heard it held the record for largest amount of data transfered in 1 day. Somewhere over a TB of data from cdrom.com on a single processor Xeon machine. And all unix like systems have "similar" security to OpenBSD, but none that I know of have gone through SEVERAL source code audits. OpenBSD also has some of the most complete and up to date documentation of the free unix like systems. You mentioned finding the install docs leaving something to be desired. What problems did you have with them? Any questions?

FreeBSD has SMP support wich OpenBSD does not really care about. OpenBSD runs on 9-10 different platforms. FreeBSD on 2. Hardware support is decent for both. I have NEVER had either crash on me unless I missed a patch, but I have learned to patch often and patch early

FreeBSD has more ports but the ports selection in OpenBSD is very nice and almost everything I use is there. Mozilla is one thing that is broken in OpenBSD (due to poor coding it seems) that I believe works in OpenBSD. Both can run linux binaries, sometimes faster than linux can.

I use OpenBSD as my desktop and on another machine that I just have. I want a dual athlon (*drool*) to run FreeBSD on (the SMP support will be greatly increased within the next year to year and a half).

Both are good systems and both will get you into the middle of the system without the pretty gui's to help.

 

[fivepesos]

good feeback.

the problem i was having with openbsd install, was relating to partitioning i believe. im still a little unclear how slices play into the paritioning. i guess i felt openbsd's documentation was lacking in that section. but rereading some of it and im starting to get it. im gonna give it a few more attempts on my own before i ask for help.

actually if u could recommend optimal partitioning scheme, id appreciate. i have two small drives i want to devote to openbsd. one is 170mb the other 210mb, and openbsd claims to be able to install in that amount of space. suggestions?

now an error that i keep having, which i also believe is related to partitioning is this. the boot loader always fails to load the kernel. im assumming this is my failed attempt at partitioning. im gonna give the documentation another go, but im not getting the splice/partition difference and how i should setup using just those 2 drive.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< good feeback.

the problem i was having with openbsd install, was relating to partitioning i believe. im still a little unclear how slices play into the paritioning. i guess i felt openbsd's documentation was lacking in that section. but rereading some of it and im starting to get it. im gonna give it a few more attempts on my own before i ask for help.

actually if u could recommend optimal partitioning scheme, id appreciate. i have two small drives i want to devote to openbsd. one is 170mb the other 210mb, and openbsd claims to be able to install in that amount of space. suggestions?

now an error that i keep having, which i also believe is related to partitioning is this. the boot loader always fails to load the kernel. im assumming this is my failed attempt at partitioning. im gonna give the documentation another go, but im not getting the splice/partition difference and how i should setup using just those 2 drive. >>



My first couple installs with OpenBSD I just made one partition / and everything just set itself up underneath it. I now have something more complicated but at the time I didnt need complicated I needed working so go simple with that and work on the other stuff. You will get the hang of it after a few installs

 

[fivepesos]

success with openbsd. i just gave up using both drives and installed everything under / on wd0. its now installed. im just kinda confused by the shell. being used to linux this doesnt have command line completion or command history. or does it? im used to bash on linux and some stuff might be different. like ALT-F1 to switch virtual consoles is now CTRL-ALT-F1. blah. is the openbsd default shell bash?

 

[Diffusion]

OpenBSD runs faster on non-x86 platofrms (Im told that FreeBSD is not nearly as fast on non-x86 systems, or so I am told), OpenBSD is more secure, has frequent auditing of code for security and bugs, and OpenBSD has the best man pages I have ever seen.
EDIT: Yes, OpenBSD is definatly more secure, it comes with SSH being the only service run, and it has had extensive code audits for security holes, no other open source project has done nearly as comprehensive a check. NetBSD is pretty good security wise these days also I'm told, the competition with OpenBSD has done it some good. FreeBSD is definatly faster on x86 machines, and yes, FreeBSD supports SMP, while Open and Net BSD do not, they are working on it though.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< OpenBSD runs faster on non-x86 platofrms (Im told that FreeBSD is not nearly as fast on non-x86 systems, or so I am told), OpenBSD is more secure, has frequent auditing of code for security and bugs, and OpenBSD has the best man pages I have ever seen.
EDIT: Yes, OpenBSD is definatly more secure, it comes with SSH being the only service run, and it has had extensive code audits for security holes, no other open source project has done nearly as comprehensive a check. NetBSD is pretty good security wise these days also I'm told, the competition with OpenBSD has done it some good. FreeBSD is definatly faster on x86 machines, and yes, FreeBSD supports SMP, while Open and Net BSD do not, they are working on it though. >>



Hrmmm, OpenBSD has more than just OpenSSH running by default. Guess you got to it after the sec guy did
They have inetd, portmapper, and I believe another service or two. But still, it aint bad

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< success with openbsd. i just gave up using both drives and installed everything under / on wd0. its now installed. im just kinda confused by the shell. being used to linux this doesnt have command line completion or command history. or does it? im used to bash on linux and some stuff might be different. like ALT-F1 to switch virtual consoles is now CTRL-ALT-F1. blah. is the openbsd default shell bash? >>



GOOD GOD NO!!! Id drop it now if it was. The default shell for root is csh. You can choose different shells when you create your users. If you issue an &quot;sh&quot; command you will have the bourne shell at your disposal (*YaY*). If you loaded ports you can install bash through the ports tree, although IMNHO its a piece of crap

Bourne once.