Jan 1, 2010

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Ian Darwin on UNIX/Linux and OpenBSD

This is my UNIX site, but it’s mostly about OpenBSD, which I consider to be among the most highly evolved species of UNIX/Linux (itself the best of all commercially-available general purpose Operating Systems), particularly with regard to security and reliability.

Getting Started: Download and Install

You can download Unix or Linux for free over the internet and install it yourself. Here are links to the main sites for a few of the better systems:

There are also commercial downloads of some distros, which you can find if you want support.

Getting Started: Unix/Linux Culture

  • Book: Unix: A History and a Memoir, by Brian Kernighan. "bwk" was present at the creation and contributed to many of the tools that are still in use.

  • Paper: Things Every Hacker Once Knew by Eric Raymond ("esr"). In many tech communities, "hacker" is a neutral term, applying to those who seek to understand and improve computer systems. The popular press converted the term "evil hacker" into just "hacker", tarring many with too broad a brush.

Why OpenBSD?

Find out why - check out the following:

The OpenBSD project’s main goals are spelled out here. Besides OpenBSD itself, the developers also provide other software products that are widely used:

  • OpenSSH, the remote terminal protocol used on just about every operating system including Linux, Windows, and macOS;

  • LibreSSL, a better replacement for OpenSSL;

  • The pf firewall code, used in macOS and FreeBSD;

  • OpenSMTPD, a mail server;

  • OpenBGPD, the Border Gateway Protocol implementation;

  • OpenIKED, an implementation of IKE V2, one of the main VPN implementation protocols;

  • OpenNTPD, a Network Time Protocol server;

  • But wait! There’s more!

Linux users can check out my Linux and OpenBSD comparison page. There’s also 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.

OpenBSD Resources

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. Obviously analogous to Linux RPMs, DEBs, etc. 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 installation.

What I offer you from OpenBSD: Support and Training

I offer installation and configuration support for OpenBSD.

My main offering is an on-site OpenBSD Configuration and Tuning workshop. 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 .

Supporting OpenBSD

The OpenBSD project used to sell OpenBSD on CD-ROM to raise funds for this worthwhile software development. However, as CD-ROMs fade from use, this has been discontinued; each release, a single CD is hand-made and auctioned on eBay as a fund raiser. I suggest you can make a donation to the project or convince your larger organization to make a donation to the OpenBSD foundation.

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openbsd