Sweet, a place to start a BSD thread!!
:jump:


I'm ALWAYS pegged as a Linux 'zealot', 'fan-boy', 'excessive compusilve?',etc. you get the point.

Don't get me wrong, I love Linux and think it is one of the best Desktop solutions. Been using it almost since it's conception. But BSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD in particular, is what I use for ALL of my server solutions, if possible. OpenBSD for the public side and NetBSD for the internal side. OpenBSD is my numero uno favorite by a few miles.


Why did I leave FreeBSD out of this?
IMHO, FBSD has slowly become what they hated, fragmented. Yes, ALL FBSD code still originates from a centralized source, but the quality of source code auditing has drastically degraded over the years. I understand that is going to happen as the tree grows. Still good, but nothing compared to O/NBSD. FreeBSD 6.* is a much better improvement over the severely broken version 5 and is a very solid system and has a boat load of packages in it's ports tree, for sure. I KNOW you FBSD users will disagree with my comments, let's here it.


Not going to mention Darwin, I'm a BSD nut, that's blasphemy. :hihi:


HERE is a great link that details some history and describes the different BSD variants. Too bad they didn't add Dragonfly, very unique clustering ideas coming out of that camp.
http://networking.ringofsaturn.com/Unix/bsd.php

Anyone notice all of BSD information being released from IBM lately? and not bad info, either!
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-openbsd.html
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-netbsd.html
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-freebsd

I've used FBSD on servers since the 3.x days, used OBSD a bit on personal systems. Comments on fragmentation have some merit, the curse of popularity. Popularity can bring a more active support and development community for some aspects though. All three have their merits.

I won't throw stones at Darwin, getting BSD into a nice mass market desktop OS (and giving Apple a real OS) is a step in the right direction.

Been considering building a new file server and torrent box for home use, might go non FBSD for fun.

OpenBSD went to version 4.0 in November. If you haven't tried it in a while, you will see lots of improvments, especially in the SMP side, FINALLY!
Most of that came from the huge $$ Darpa Grant, that is, untill Theo, as he usually does, opened his mouth. Although I DO think Theo de Raadt is a genius and stands up for what he believes (usually correct), but he really needs to learn to apply a filter between brain and mouth.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58553,00.html
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbsd-misc&m=105061580500738&w=2
OBSD is screaming in 64bit, too. The other thing I like about OBSD, EVERY 6 months a new version is out. Exactly every 6 months. yeah!

I still love the NetBSD pkgsrc (http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/pkgsrc). It blows away about all of the other pkgtools I have seen (with the exception of Gentoo's emerge). If it has a processor, it will run NetBSD. NetBSD has so embraced XEN. NetBSD runs a Dom0 and as DomU better than any Linux setup I have done, yet.


So FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE is out. I hear it is much improved. I hope so. Will try soon. I did read a review, but the author had no idea what he was talking about and I won't waste your time posting it here.

I won't throw stones at Darwin, getting BSD into a nice mass market desktop OS (and giving Apple a real OS) is a step in the right direction.
About 40% of my work is Apple/Mac related. Been using OS X since '98, about 1-1/2 years before it was released. Yes, I was a tester. Not even the same OS as then, much better, now.
Darwin, is just a layer underneath Aqua, cocoa, carbon, etc. BTW, most of the Darwin userland tools are from NetBSD, not FreeBSD. A lot of people do not know that. Very similar, though.
My angst is toward Darwin itself and the users that think because they know OS X, they are UNIX masters. Darwin does what it needs to do, it is incredibly limited and I hate it! I just do. Normal UNIX ways do NOT transfer to OS X. Installing FINK (http://www.finkproject.org/) helps, if your wanting to go that direction. Otherwise, if say connecting via a SSH connection, you better be know the niutil (http://www.samspublishing.com/library/content.asp?b=Mac_OS_X_Unleashed&seqNum=318&rl=1) tool. Niutil works well. I am also against OS X servers. OS X on the Desktop is great and the Xserve is a nice server box, but OS X server is a PITA. My Darwin comments generally rustles feathers and will probably continue to do so as will my stance on it.

In case there are those that have never heard of OpenBSD's PF (http://openbsd.org/faq/pf/index.html) firewall, it is wonderful, very powerful piece of work. I will put it against ANY firewall out there in power, functionality, ease, and especially price!

Anyhow, BSDTALK (http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com) just released an audio interview with one of the PF guys, Jason Dixon. Good stuff.
WARNING -- Mega Nerds! :hihi:
http://cisx1.uma.maine.edu/~wbackman/bsdtalk/bsdtalk105.ogg (http://cisx1.uma.maine.edu/%7Ewbackman/bsdtalk/bsdtalk105.ogg)







ARGHHH, why can't I rename this thread?

It's BSD not Bsd.
I must have been in Monkey Mode again?
:jauhnny: