Ian Darwin: UNIX and OpenBSD Support

Thecus Downgrade here.

This is my UNIX site, but it's mostly about OpenBSD, which I consider to be among the most highly evolved species of UNIX (itself the best of all commercially-available Operating Systems), particularly with regard to security and reliability. Find out why - check out this Wikipedia Featured Article on OpenBSD as well as my (somewhat dated) review in WebServer OnLine! (associated with SunExpert / Workstation Expert, original site defunct, thankfully archived at the Internet Archive). Also check out the many user testimonials and press reports on OpenBSD.

Resources

Here is a perennially not-quite-up-to-date OpenBSD Administrator's Cross-Reference that you may find useful.

Here, too, is a simple MS-Windows to Unix summary.

Here is a list of general UNIX resources: short; long.

And my own subset of the now-defunct laptops page.

What I do for OpenBSD

I am an "OpenBSD generalist", meaning I work on any part of the system where I can make a useful contribution. Lately that is mostly web site stuff and ports...

OpenBSD provides a useful mechanism called Ports and Packages, for installing third-party software. A Port is a directory containing all the files to reliably and repeatedly build a Package; a Package is a compiled (if necessary), ready-to-install form of software. A package is similar in spirit to Linux RPM's or apt-get, or MS-Windows installers. I maintain some OpenBSD ports. Refer to the ports page above to get more information about OpenBSD Ports and on updating your ports tree to obtain ports added after the OpenBSD CD-ROM you have.

OpenBSD Information

The OpenBSD FAQ is a tremendously useful resource.

The OpenBSD project have discontinued the "i386 laptop" page; here I maintain information on a few laptops I have or have regular access to.

Linux Users

Scope out this BSD for Linux rant by Matt Fuller. A few parts are specific to FreeBSD rather than OpenBSD, but it's mostly a general comparision between Linux and BSD.

What I offer you from OpenBSD: Support and Training

I offer installation and configuration support for OpenBSD.

My first support offering is an on-site OpenBSD Configuration and Tuning session.

I will install OpenBSD for you if necessary (you can watch), and help you tune it and customize it in whatever ways you need. Special emphasis on AMD64/Intel and SPARC platforms. Please Contact me for availability .

Buy OpenBSD on CD-ROM

Buying OpenBSD on CD-ROM is one way of supporting this worthwhile project. Please order direct from the OpenBSD Project.

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