Annotation of www/testimonials.html, Revision 1.8
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5: <title>OpenBSD: Users' Views</title>
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14: <p>
1.7 ian 15: <h2><font color=#e00000>OpenBSD: Users' View</font></h2>
1.1 ian 16: <p>Many users have commented on their use of OpenBSD.
17: The following are all extracts from our public mailing lists or,
1.3 ian 18: occasionally, other mailing lists (these have links to the original articles).
1.6 ian 19: Postings have been shortened, and edited slightly for spelling and grammar,
1.1 ian 20: but are otherwise unchanged.
21:
1.8 ! deraadt 22: <hr>
! 23:
! 24: <h3>Matthew Haas says this:</h3>
1.1 ian 25: <p>
26: I've been very impressed with OpenBSD since my decision to install it.
27: Definitely a great system, reminds me of my Slackware days, but better.
28: <p>
29: Thanks.
30:
1.8 ! deraadt 31: <h3>
1.7 ian 32: <a href="mailto:webmaster@2600.org.au">Grant Bayley</a>,
1.8 ! deraadt 33: an IT Manager from Australia, writes:</h3>
1.1 ian 34: <p>
35: By way of success stories, since a few of us at 2600 Australia started
36: using OpenBSD about 12 months ago now in some form or another, we've seen...
37: friends load it onto their machines and been simply amazed
38: at the quality of it, in particular the forethought that goes into
39: securing things out of the box.
40: <p>
41: We've also had one of our guys working at an ISP go head-to-head with an
42: in-house SuSE zealot of sorts on a compatibility, stability and security
43: test in advance of them selecting an operating system for their servers
44: (which, while using RedHat, had been rooted at least once). OpenBSD passed
1.6 ian 45: with flying colors and as of today, they're beginning a roll-out of 2.6
1.1 ian 46: onto their servers, mostly using stock components and software from the
47: ports tree (qmail, cucipop etc).
48:
1.8 ! deraadt 49: <h3>System and Network Administrator Jeff Schneiter offers this:</h3>
1.1 ian 50: <p> With a frozen budget it sure makes one squeeze every last
51: bit of power out of whatever hardware one can lay his hands
52: on... and thanks to OpenBSD, I have been doing just that.
53:
1.8 ! deraadt 54: <h3><a name=sarendal href="mailto:tony@polarcap.org">Tony Sarendal</a> says this:</h3>
1.1 ian 55: <p>I tried OpenBSD because of the IPsec support.
56: The reason I stick with it is because it really is nice to use
57: and it gives a feeling of quality which no other OS can match.
58: <p>
59: I did some programming on an OpenBSD machine, after this I really
60: appreciated the man pages. Other Unices I used had man pages that
61: simply weren't any good.
62: <p>
63: Keep up the good work guys.
64:
1.8 ! deraadt 65: <h3>Security Engineer Tyler Allison writes:</h3>
1.1 ian 66: <p>
1.6 ian 67: I have installed, secured, and maintained Linux, Windows NT and OpenBSD in
68: highly secure environments. (yes you can secure Linux and Windows NT in
1.1 ian 69: this environment :) ). Having said that I have to point out that if you
70: want a minimum administration to keep up with security issues option you
71: need to pick OpenBSD by far. It is not uncommon for people to go years without
72: updating their production OpenBSD machines because they are just rock solid
73: and there are no known "remote" vulnerabilities. Thus no good reason to
74: upgrade...
75: <p>
76: I would feel perfectly happy to have one of my [novice] interns do a basic
77: OpenBSD install on a PC (no extra security work after the install) and then put
78: the companies crown jewels on that machine and then walk away for a year.
79: Knowing full well that machine hasn't crashed, been broken into or in need
80: of an OS upgrade. You can't say that about NT or Linux.
81: Or if you do you obviously havent ever used the product that way :)
82: <p>
83: Another thing that I hear people point out is go check your local exploit
84: site or vulnerability alert mailing list and see if you can find a "remote"
85: root level exploit that works on OpenBSD. I dare say you won't find any that
86: are less than 12 months old.
87:
1.8 ! deraadt 88: <h3>Jan Johansson gave this reply to a "how do I build a cheap web server?" query:</h3>
1.1 ian 89: <p>
90: I work today with Solaris, OpenBSD, NT Server, NT Workstation and Win 95.
91: <p>
92: After reading Bugtraq for some weeks I will say that I will never put
93: any (important) machine on the Internet if there is not a firewall in
94: front and for packet filtering I go for OpenBSD...
95: <p>
1.6 ian 96: For a cheap web server I say hardware from a known vendor, an ordered
1.1 ian 97: OpenBSD CD-ROM and Apache...
98:
99:
1.8 ! deraadt 100: <h3><a href="mailto:wyodlows@nj.devry.edu">
! 101: William Yodlowsky</a> at Devry Institute wrote:</h3>
1.1 ian 102:
1.4 ian 103: <p>[A few] years ago I was just getting into system administration. I learned
1.1 ian 104: Linux first. Then one of our old (I mean *really* old) BSDi servers
105: crashed, and it was up to me to rebuild the system.
106: <p>
107: I looked at FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux. In the end, it came down
108: to "secure and stable" that took the prize. OpenBSD 2.1 was installed.
109: <p>
110: Since then, I've run 2.1-2.5 on everything from production servers to
111: laptops. We've never (repeat: NEVER) had a break-in.
112: <p>
113: A coworker setup a RedHat based box to test his skills at setting up SSL
114: and a secure web site.
115: It was hacked literally overnight, and by the next morning was attacking
116: other sites.
117: <p>
118: Our OpenBSD servers were probed and then left alone.
119: <p>
120: In the intervening two years, that original server got upgraded
121: and patched several
122: times and the OS never gave us reason to question the reliability or
123: security of OpenBSD.
124: <p>
125: We have another box, acting as a router for about 800 workstations doing
126: very basic filtering and NAT. It's on a P120 with 32MB RAM and typically
127: the uptime would look like this:
128: <pre>
129: % uptime
130: 9:05PM up 266 days, 4:23, 1 user, load averages: 0.06, 0.06, 0.06
131: %</pre>
132: <p>As well, OpenBSD runs on my laptop.
1.6 ian 133: A Gateway Solo 2500 with a Xircom modem, and a Linksys fast Ethernet NIC.
1.1 ian 134: <p>
135: And it never crashes :)
136: <p>
1.4 ian 137: One other incident that made me a believer... we were pingbombed
138: [perhaps a predecessor to the early2000 DDOS attacks?]. I mean,
1.1 ian 139: 900 different hosts on different networks floodpinging an OpenBSD 2.3 box
1.6 ian 140: simultaneously, while it was processing email and web pages for 3500 users.
1.1 ian 141: <p>
142: It was a P133 with 64MB ram. And it didn't go down. It got a bit slower,
143: but never crashed :-)
144:
1.8 ! deraadt 145: <h3>John J. Adelsberger III said this about us in Bruce Schneier's
1.1 ian 146: <a href="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0004.html#CommentsfromReaders">
1.8 ! deraadt 147: Crypto-Gram</a>:</h3>
1.2 ian 148: (the comments he is responding to are Schneier's)
1.1 ian 149: <br>
1.6 ian 150: <br>> Real systems show no signs of becoming less
151: <br>> complex. In fact, they are becoming more complex,
152: <br>> faster and faster. Microsoft Windows is a poster
153: <br>> child for this trend to complexity.
1.1 ian 154: <br>...
1.6 ian 155: <br>> The other choice is to slow down, to simplify,
156: <br>> and to try to add security.
1.1 ian 157: <p>
158: OpenBSD does this. <I>I am unaware of any other group whose workings
159: are publicly viewable that does so</I> [emphasis added], which is regrettable, because
160: I would prefer not to have this appear as an OpenBSD plug; rather,
161: my purpose is to point out that not only is this approach feasible,
162: but it is being done.
163:
1.8 ! deraadt 164: <h3>Andrew Hermetz commented as follows:</h3>
1.1 ian 165: <p>Hey all,
166: <p>Just wanted to drop a line and thank all who have worked to make OpenBSD
167: such a clean, cool, & efficient project.
168: <p>Major kudos to Theo for being a man ahead of his time! ;-)
169: <p>As I have to frequently explain to people *why* security is important at
170: all ("if you have nothing to hide...", "nothing you do is important enough to
1.6 ian 171: warrant encryption...", "only criminals and terrorists need to sneak around
1.1 ian 172: anonymously...", etc. ad nauseam), let alone *why* it's important in this day
173: and age of personal networks behind a DSL or even a full T1, I love being able
1.6 ian 174: to point them to a page which sets out a well-reasoned explanation for taking
1.1 ian 175: computer security seriously.
176: <p>[... OpenBSD installed]
177: effortlessly onto a Pentium 90 Compaq LTE 5100 laptop -- even the no-name
178: brand LAN card came right up and did a kickass install over a friend's office
179: T1. When I sing its praises, the thing that seems to get most people is its
180: spartan look & feel, but I like knowing where everything is and not having a
181: distro that shoves [stuff] into dark corners I'll never find...
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