The BSD Unix family
January 23rd, 2006Informit has a very, well, informative article on the BSD family of Unix operating systems.
For over three years now, I have been using OpenBSD for its high security and powerful packet filtering. With a history dating back as far as 1978, BSD is incredibly stable and each branch of it gets more flexible with each release.
The BSD License is much less restrictive than the GPL (used by Linux), which makes BSD attractive to businesses.
Cool. From my own reading over the years OpenBSD is configured to install as the most secure of all the unix OS’s, which has made me consider setting up a OpenBSD box – except for that “I can barely run a windoze box” thing. How does a lowly, geek wannabe like me figure out how to run something like this?
OpenBSD is the least turnkey of the BSD flavours, I’m afraid. A lot of attention to detail is necessary to get it installed, much less run it. I have a great book from NoStarch Press called Absolute OpenBSD that explains in full gory technical detail just what OpenBSD is all about, however it’s still a journey with a lot of paddling and portaging.
Funny how complexity and security go hand-in-hand… Guess I’ll just have to dogpaddle my way thru life as a windoze user …