| ▲ | nelsonic 7 hours ago |
| FreeBSD has the same roots as OpenBSD but the former has a “compatibility” focus whereas the latter has the security focus.
Having a background in security, the choice was obvious for me. But each person/org should decide based on their needs.
Haven’t had any issues running it on all major hardware (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Apple, etc) the UI isn’t as pretty as macOS on Desktop, but it runs Firefox & Chrome, etc. so you can do everything you need.
If you have an older Lenovo or Mac lying around collecting dust, dive in! |
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| ▲ | riedel 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Actually that is mostly current HW compat. NetBSD would be I guess the one for legacy HW compat. |
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| ▲ | cestith 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | OpenBSD does support some older hardware already not supported by, say, most Linux distributions. As an example MacPPC has’t had support from most Linux distributors since IBM Power went little-endian, but OpenBSD runs fine on it. NetBSD is, however, the gold standard for an OS that runs on just about anything. Their (maybe unofficial) slogan has been “Of course it runs NetBSD!”. Their logo has a flag in it because they “plant their flag” on so many platforms. https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/ |
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| ▲ | mxuribe 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yeah, thanks that helps! Its the old convenience vs security balancing act :-) |
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| ▲ | nelsonic 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | 100%. I put off learning/using OpenBSD for a decade until a breach at a client (we weren’t responsible for DevOps/SysAdmin) made me pick it up because I don’t have time to be a full-time Linux Sysadmin anymore. Just want the servers to run without having to think about them. Wish I’d done it sooner.
Lost at lot of time on Linux, Docker, K8s, etc. that I could have skipped completely with OpenBSD.
Our servers are an order of magnitude simpler now, just single services per VM and I sleep better. ;-) | | |
| ▲ | mxuribe 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | > ...I don’t have time to be a full-time Linux Sysadmin anymore. Just want the servers to run without having to think about them... Very salient comment there! And, while not the only reason for me, but what you noted is sort of one reason that's triggering the itch in me to go back to playing with the BSDs. Don't get me wrong, I still do love fiddling around with some areas of linux once in a while....but then, there are other uses/areas where i just want a server to do its thing, and for my maintenance to be a little less (at least less than some linux distros require). So maybe i'm not the only one? :-) | | |
| ▲ | nelsonic 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yeah, time is finite and fleeting and the older I get the faster it seems to go! As a teen I had infinite time to compile Linux and debug stuff. Now I just want to spend time with family/outdoors and not be stuck in a windowless room negotiating with a black box. ;-P | | |
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| ▲ | wang_li 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| There was FreeBSD and NetBSD. NetBSD supporting many platforms while FreeBSD supported just x86. There was some contention between NetBSD developers and Theo and crew left to create OpenBSD. They all more or less have common ancestry being derivatives of 386BSD. |
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| ▲ | mxuribe 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yeah, i knew there was some aspects of decendancy across the different BSDs. And, I mentioned NetBSD for embedded stuff...but really, i *think* its that NetBsd is simply installed on tons of different hardware....so not only embedded....i kinda remembered that about NetBSD. But, its the other BSDs - in particular FreeBSD vs OpenBSD - that i always forget the differences...but got it now. Thanks! | | |
| ▲ | Brian_K_White 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | freebsd = utility openbsd = security netbsd = portability freebsd: performance, features, drivers, software compat -
closest to linux in utility & usability though unlike linux in execution openbsd: safety for exposed services netbsd: portable across many cpu & hardware platforms - big-endian powerpc sun, hitachi sh3 jornada, etc, easiest to port to a new arch | | |
| ▲ | Melatonic 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Can FreeBSD be stripped down to be more like OpenBSD security wise while still keeping the performance benefits ? | |
| ▲ | mxuribe 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Oh this is a wonderful and succinct summary; thanks! |
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