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13: <h1>OpenBSD: Users' Views</h1>
14: <p>Many users have commented on their use of OpenBSD.
15: The following are all extracts from our public mailing lists or,
1.3 ! ian 16: occasionally, other mailing lists (these have links to the original articles).
! 17: Postings have been shortened, and edited slighly for spelling and grammar,
1.1 ian 18: but are otherwise unchanged.
19:
20: <h2>Matthew Haas says this:</h2>
21: <p>
22: I've been very impressed with OpenBSD since my decision to install it.
23: Definitely a great system, reminds me of my Slackware days, but better.
24: <p>
25: Thanks.
26:
27: <h2>Grant Bayley, an IT Manager from Australia, writes:</h2>
28: <p>
29: By way of success stories, since a few of us at 2600 Australia started
30: using OpenBSD about 12 months ago now in some form or another, we've seen...
31: friends load it onto their machines and been simply amazed
32: at the quality of it, in particular the forethought that goes into
33: securing things out of the box.
34: <p>
35: We've also had one of our guys working at an ISP go head-to-head with an
36: in-house SuSE zealot of sorts on a compatibility, stability and security
37: test in advance of them selecting an operating system for their servers
38: (which, while using RedHat, had been rooted at least once). OpenBSD passed
39: with flying colours and as of today, they're beginning a rollout of 2.6
40: onto their servers, mostly using stock components and software from the
41: ports tree (qmail, cucipop etc).
42:
43: <h2>System and Network Administrator Jeff Schneiter offers this:</h2>
44: <p> With a frozen budget it sure makes one squeeze every last
45: bit of power out of whatever hardware one can lay his hands
46: on... and thanks to OpenBSD, I have been doing just that.
47:
1.2 ian 48: <h2><a name=sarendal href="mailto:tony@polarcap.org">Tony Sarendal</a> says this:</h2>
1.1 ian 49: <p>I tried OpenBSD because of the IPsec support.
50: The reason I stick with it is because it really is nice to use
51: and it gives a feeling of quality which no other OS can match.
52: <p>
53: I did some programming on an OpenBSD machine, after this I really
54: appreciated the man pages. Other Unices I used had man pages that
55: simply weren't any good.
56: <p>
57: Keep up the good work guys.
58:
59: <h2>Security Engineer Tyler Allison writes:</h2>
60: <p>
61: I have installed, secured, and maintained Linux, WindowsNT and OpenBSD in
62: highly secure environments. (yes you can secure Linux and WindowsNT in
63: this environment :) ). Having said that I have to point out that if you
64: want a minimum administration to keep up with security issues option you
65: need to pick OpenBSD by far. It is not uncommon for people to go years without
66: updating their production OpenBSD machines because they are just rock solid
67: and there are no known "remote" vulnerabilities. Thus no good reason to
68: upgrade...
69: <p>
70: I would feel perfectly happy to have one of my [novice] interns do a basic
71: OpenBSD install on a PC (no extra security work after the install) and then put
72: the companies crown jewels on that machine and then walk away for a year.
73: Knowing full well that machine hasn't crashed, been broken into or in need
74: of an OS upgrade. You can't say that about NT or Linux.
75: Or if you do you obviously havent ever used the product that way :)
76: <p>
77: Another thing that I hear people point out is go check your local exploit
78: site or vulnerability alert mailing list and see if you can find a "remote"
79: root level exploit that works on OpenBSD. I dare say you won't find any that
80: are less than 12 months old.
81:
1.2 ian 82: <h2>Jan Johansson gave this reply to a "how do I build a cheap web server?" query:</h2>
1.1 ian 83: <p>
84: I work today with Solaris, OpenBSD, NT Server, NT Workstation and Win 95.
85: <p>
86: After reading Bugtraq for some weeks I will say that I will never put
87: any (important) machine on the Internet if there is not a firewall in
88: front and for packet filtering I go for OpenBSD...
89: <p>
90: For a cheap webserver I say hardware from a known vendor, an ordered
91: OpenBSD CD-ROM and Apache...
92:
93:
94: <h2>William Yodlowsky at Devry Institute wrote:</h2>
95:
96: <p>Two years ago I was just getting into system administration. I learned
97: Linux first. Then one of our old (I mean *really* old) BSDi servers
98: crashed, and it was up to me to rebuild the system.
99: <p>
100: I looked at FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux. In the end, it came down
101: to "secure and stable" that took the prize. OpenBSD 2.1 was installed.
102: <p>
103: Since then, I've run 2.1-2.5 on everything from production servers to
104: laptops. We've never (repeat: NEVER) had a break-in.
105: <p>
106: A coworker setup a RedHat based box to test his skills at setting up SSL
107: and a secure web site.
108: It was hacked literally overnight, and by the next morning was attacking
109: other sites.
110: <p>
111: Our OpenBSD servers were probed and then left alone.
112: <p>
113: In the intervening two years, that original server got upgraded
114: and patched several
115: times and the OS never gave us reason to question the reliability or
116: security of OpenBSD.
117: <p>
118: We have another box, acting as a router for about 800 workstations doing
119: very basic filtering and NAT. It's on a P120 with 32MB RAM and typically
120: the uptime would look like this:
121: <pre>
122: % uptime
123: 9:05PM up 266 days, 4:23, 1 user, load averages: 0.06, 0.06, 0.06
124: %</pre>
125: <p>As well, OpenBSD runs on my laptop.
126: A Gateway Solo 2500 with a Xircom modem, and a Linksys fast ethernet NIC.
127: <p>
128: And it never crashes :)
129: <p>
130: One other incident that made me a believer... we were pingbombed. I mean,
131: 900 different hosts on different networks floodpinging an OpenBSD 2.3 box
132: simultaneously, while it was processing email and webpages for 3500 users.
133: <p>
134: It was a P133 with 64MB ram. And it didn't go down. It got a bit slower,
135: but never crashed :-)
136:
1.3 ! ian 137: <h2>John J. Adelsberger III said this about us in Bruce Schneier's
1.1 ian 138: <a href="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0004.html#CommentsfromReaders">
1.2 ian 139: Crypto-Gram</a>:</h2>
140: (the comments he is responding to are Schneier's)
1.1 ian 141: <br>
142: <br>< Real systems show no signs of becoming less
143: <br>< complex. In fact, they are becoming more complex,
144: <br>< faster and faster. Microsoft Windows is a poster
145: <br>< child for this trend to complexity.
146: <br>
147: <br>...
148: <br>
149: <br>< The other choice is to slow down, to simplify,
150: <br>< and to try to add security.
151: <p>
152: OpenBSD does this. <I>I am unaware of any other group whose workings
153: are publicly viewable that does so</I> [emphasis added], which is regrettable, because
154: I would prefer not to have this appear as an OpenBSD plug; rather,
155: my purpose is to point out that not only is this approach feasible,
156: but it is being done.
157:
158: <h2>Andrew Hermetz commented as follows:</h2>
159: <p>Hey all,
160: <p>Just wanted to drop a line and thank all who have worked to make OpenBSD
161: such a clean, cool, & efficient project.
162: <p>Major kudos to Theo for being a man ahead of his time! ;-)
163: <p>As I have to frequently explain to people *why* security is important at
164: all ("if you have nothing to hide...", "nothing you do is important enough to
165: warrent encryption...", "only criminals and terrorists need to sneak around
166: anonymously...", etc. ad nauseam), let alone *why* it's important in this day
167: and age of personal networks behind a DSL or even a full T1, I love being able
168: to point them to a page which sets out a well-reasoned explaination for taking
169: computer security seriously.
170: <p>[... OpenBSD installed]
171: effortlessly onto a Pentium 90 Compaq LTE 5100 laptop -- even the no-name
172: brand LAN card came right up and did a kickass install over a friend's office
173: T1. When I sing its praises, the thing that seems to get most people is its
174: spartan look & feel, but I like knowing where everything is and not having a
175: distro that shoves [stuff] into dark corners I'll never find...
176: <hr></hr>
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