[rescue] OpenBSD

[Christian J Hedemark]

[no need to copy me on replies I am on the list]

Dave McGuire said:
>   You can't be into OpenBSD and *not* be into its politics, because
> THAT'S WHY IT EXISTS.

But that's not why I use it.  I never even tried NetBSD.  I went from
Windows to Linux, liked it, but had some concerns about shortcomings in
Linux.  A fellow LUG member clued me in to OpenBSD.  I've been tinkering
with it off and on over the last couple of years but really started ramping
up over the last 8 months.  It reminds me of the simplicity of the DOS days,
but with the power of UNIX behind it.  You only get a basic OS, and anything
else you want you have to add.  But there are some options in there already
that you just need to turn on and configure, that are said to be secure
(more secure than anything I could build on my own).

The politics are just unwanted baggage as far as I'm concerned.  It has
nothing to do with my motivations to run the OS.

> Theo DeRaadt had a fight with a few other
> people in NetBSD core, got himself thrown out, and started OpenBSD out
> of spite.

Theo DeRaadt lets his mouth write checks that his butt can't cash.  He's a
brilliant and prolific programmer, but a very poor example of a human being.
I've been in many small arguments with him, some public, some private.  I
run OpenBSD despite him.  I support the developers directly, but just not
Theo.  Most recently I contributed to USB 2.0 support (through direct
hardware donations, not code).  When I approached Theo wanting to kick in
some hardware to see some better support in areas where OpenBSD was weak,
Theo verbally assaulted me and basically blew me off because the hardware I
was offering was not as new or sexy as what he was asking for.

Screw him.  He's not the only guy kicking in code.  I found out who was
doing the USB stuff and sent him some hardware, and have his wish list for
other stuff to support for when I am better able to kick more contributions
in.

So he can have his little tea party scuffles with the NetBSD guys.  They can
 call each other names, lock each other out of their respective CVS
repositories, sling mud, talk crap, I don't care.  I just like having a
lightweight yet powerful yet secure operating system that I can install with
one floppy and a fast internet connection.

> Add a new SPARC SCSI driver, turn off everything in
> inetd.conf, label it "proactively secure" to give it some marketing
> hype, and make like it's a WHOLE NEW OPERATING SYSTEM.  Give me a
> break already!

There is a lot more to OpenBSD than that.

>   I'll be the first to applaud if they're REALLY going in new directions
> ON THEIR OWN.  But until that happens, it will always be a modified
> NetBSD distribution that exists because an [admittedly highly skilled]
> egomaniac couldn't let go of a fight.

Expect OpenBSD to probably have *the* reference implementation for iSCSI
before the others.  And I do think this will be a big deal.  Much bigger
than the current core developers think it will be.  They are also branching
out into some new architectures that NetBSD isn't running on yet.  They have
also written a totally new firewall from the ground up that, from what I can
see so far, totally kicks ass.  There are some buglets in the ftp proxy
support but other than that I've been very happy.  The other *BSD projects
do good work but they don't stick to their ethics when things get tough.
The OpenBSD guys did a license audit, identified a major component that
didn't have a compatible license, and simply ripped it out and replaced it
with a new one under a compatible license in a startlingly short period of
time.