[PLUG] Switching from Linux ?

Randal L. Schwartz merlyn at stonehenge.com
Wed Apr 23 20:06:02 UTC 2003


>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Robinson <michael at robinson-west.com> writes:

Michael> I'm not a big fan of going to BSD myself. [...]  GNU is
Michael> building a standard environment for what a person should see
Michael> in a source package, how about BSD?  Linux is Posix
Michael> compliant, is BSD?  Linux is also clustering ready, I don't
Michael> know about BSD.  The other thing with BSD is that
Michael> developement could be stymied compared to Linux.

This is all FUD.  You know not of what you speak.

It's like me saying

        I'm pretty sure OpenBSD won't give you cancer.
        What about Linux?  Huh?  Where is the *hard evidence*?

Please to not be spouting such nonsense.

I make no false claims about OpenBSD, nor derisions about Linux.

I do claim that OpenBSD is more secure than Linux, as borne out by
openly available data.  Yes, part of the reason is that Linux has a
large market share, and hence a better target for the script kiddies.
But part of it is also just a fundamental difference in development
philosophy.  And since I want to be able to sleep at night, I
appreciate both of those contributing factors.

Is it a big deal that I can't get the latest gadget for OpenBSD as a
simple source or binary RPM?  No.

Do I care that I don't run Linux binaries out of the box?  No.  But
I've read manpages that say that with a bit of work, I could run a
Linux binary if I chose.

And maybe that lets me optimize for security, and not gadgetry.  It
all depends on what you're optimizing for.  Others may chose gadgetry
or compatibility over security, or be willing to keep their system
behind a separate firewall (running OpenBSD :).  Not me.

-- 
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn at stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
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