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Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 11:02:00 +0100 (CET)
Organization: Ninth Circle Enterprises
From: Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl>
To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
Subject: RE: What are the strengths of FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD?
Cc: OpenBSD-advocacy@OpenBSD.org, NetBSD-advocacy@NetBSD.org,
	 FreeBSD advocacy list <FreeBSD-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>

On 28-Nov-98 Greg Lehey wrote:
> 1.  What is the difference between FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD?
> 
>     Once upon a time it was relatively easy to answer this question:
>     FreeBSD aimed at ease of use on the Intel platform, NetBSD aimed
>     at portability, and OpenBSD wasn't.  Now it's more difficult:
>     FreeBSD has moved to other platforms, and while I don't know if
>     NetBSD is any easier to install, there's at least OpenBSD to
>     address as well.  The best I have come to in recent times has been
>     ``FreeBSD aims for ease of use and maximum performance, NetBSD
>     aims for portability, and OpenBSD addresses security''.
> 
>     I'm not very happy with this statement, which bases mainly on
>     hearsay, and which may not even be a good basis for discussion.
>     I'd welcome any input.

Since OpenBSD is exported from Canada its initially exported with strong
cryptography additions. Also if one takes a look at the Changes lists of the
various versions a lot of security fixes are easily spotted. Theo and cohorts
focus a lot on the overal security of the source.

NetBSD, unfortunately not very familiar with it yet, has the widest range of
supported platforms and is the spreader of the BSD word on different platforms
;)

But I guess the folks of the appropriate advocacy lists care to indulge us some
more...

 
> 2.  What aspects of *BSD would interest a SunWorld reader?  At first I
>     thought ``well, they're not going to be interested in FreeBSD,
>     because FreeBSD doesn't run on Sparc'', but it seems to me that
>     it's unlikely that many Sun users would install current versions
>     of *BSD on their modern hardware.  Sure, there are plenty of older
>     Sun machines out there, on which it's either impossible or
>     impractical to run Solaris 2, and for them NetBSD or OpenBSD would
>     be a good alternative to SunOS 4.  But what are the majority of
>     the users going to want to know about *BSD?  Sure, it has the
>     comfortable feel of SunOS 4, but what hardware would they run it
>     on?  What would they do with it?  I've thought of things like name
>     servers and Internet gateways, but there must be more than that.

Don't forget Solaris has also been ported to x86 architecture, so in effect I
guess x86 might be appropriate to mention for FreeBSD. Then again, one could
also mention all the Sparc versions we already have or going to have. General
firewalls for all sorts of gateways, cheap routers, mail system, and god knows
what else.

Hope I attributed a little to clarify the `chaos'.

---
Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven/Asmodai
asmodai(at)wxs.nl                   |  Cum angelis et pueris,
Junior Network/Security Specialist  |  fideles inveniamur
*BSD & picoBSD: The Power to Serve... <http://www.freebsd.org>