Which *BSD to play with?

[mcveigh]

just wondering about what people here thought about the various bsd distros' and which ones they like/dislike.
I'm leaning to openBSD for the security, but Have heard NET and FREE are easier to learn and have more apps.

I'd like to start learning to perhaps host my own mail and webservers.

n0cmonkey we already know what you vote for

 

[MGMorden]

I'm gonna vote for FreeBSD. It's got a larger installed userbase so you'll have more support. It's the only one I've ever used personally though, so I definately can't say anything about it being better or worse than the others in a technological respect.

 

[JohnnyPC]

Hmmm...Where's NoCmonkey? 5 4 3 2 1 ....any second now....

 

[Nothinman]

I would go for FreeBSD, it's just as secure as OpenBSD (IMHO) and since it has a much, much larger install base the "many eyes" idea means more bugs are found and fixed.

But overall I would suggest Debian GNU/Linux =)

 

[n0cmonkey]

Im away for a weekend and everyone breaks out BSD questions. Anyhow, Go with OpenBSD. FreeBSD's track record cant match it. Plus FreeBSD developers seem to like the revolution over evolution style of development which is the opposite of Theo and OpenBSD. FreeBSD and NetBSD are not bad really, but they arent my style. OpenBSD was based on NetBSD, but the OpenBSD developers worried less about porting the system and more about security and stability. Overall you cannot go wrong with any of them. Or Debian or Slackware for that matter. I just think puffy would kick the butt of that fat pengiun (and we wont even get into how old that daemon is getting)

 

[Sunner]

Haven't tried NetBSD, but to me, OpenBSD and FreeBSD both have their charms.

I really like OpenBSD's way of development, and their man pages are second to none.
And the secure by default aproach is a very good thing as well.

FreeBSD OTOH has SMP support, 4.5 will have a native Java environment, and there is a larger userbase.

My ideal server OS would be OpenBSD, with a good native java environment, and a good SMP implementation, if they had that, it would be the $hit.

For a workstation though, I dont think anything beats Debian Linux.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

freebsd

 

[pens]

freebsd owns! 4.5 should be out very very soon.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

<< freebsd owns! 4.5 should be out very very soon. >>



yea...im waiting for it. where is it?

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< My ideal server OS would be OpenBSD, with a good native java environment, >>



Check the mailing list archives, there was a petition or something to get Sun to port JAVA stuff to OpenBSD.



<< and a good SMP implementation, >>



They are taking their time on this, but it looks like the SMP project can now use 2 processors. Of course the kernel dumps immediately after the second processor is brought online.



<< if they had that, it would be the $hit. >>



They dont need all that



<<

<< freebsd owns! 4.5 should be out very very soon. >>



yea...im waiting for it. where is it? >>



Its being 0wned. Just wait for 5. Its supposed to be out at the end of the year (or the end of last year if you missed the announcement ).

 

[mcveigh]

of course there is this now to make things more interesting.
ISO's are supposed to be available soon

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< of course there is this now to make things more interesting.
ISO's are supposed to be available soon >>



I cant wait. I may even upgrade my firewall machine to 3.0 now... Not sure though. I guess I should stop being lazy and see how much DR had to change to get IPF working in 3.0. The more he had to change in the OS the harder it would be to make a port...

 

[Sunner]

<< They dont need all that >>


I didn't say they NEEDED it, I just said if they had it, it wold be THE $HIT

 

[khorgath]

My votes for FreeBSD, but thats only for me.

Just like with Linux Distros, everything has a place, and for every requirement, there is an ideal fit. I've always stuck with Slackware as regards Linux, and most of my packages would be in a semiupgraded state anyhow. Its because of a level of comfort one develops. Ditto with BSD. If you have a linux background, I suspect you'll find it much easier migrating to FreeBSD. Especially if you are constantly upgrading packages, etc. Thus, I say FreeBSD for the enthusiast's system. However, for a production box, i.e. something where you have a clear idea what you are gonna do and want things going reliable and securely, my recommendation has to be OpenBSD.

ciao
-sush

 

[DnetMHZ]

Another vote for OpenBSD

DnetMHZ

 

[n0cmonkey]

OpenBSD isnt rocket science, but it is used by rocket scientists.