Re: FreeBSD and OpenBSD differences?

[David Edelstein <amadan@amadan.org>]

Wayne K9DI BSD Stuff wrote:

>		Hi Gang,
>	Wayne K9DI es Leader Dog Patriot here.  [yes, I'm visually 
>impaired (95% blind) and am working with my 2nd dog guide]
>	I hate to sound ignorant, and I'm not here to start a flame war.  
>However, I'd like to know the main differences between OpenBSD and FreeBSD.  
>Will FreeBSD tarballs work on OpenBSD and vice versa?  I've read the 
>About pages on both sites, now I'd like to get a view from the people 
>that actually use the OS's.
>  
>
I'm running OpenBSD on one machine and FreeBSD on another right now. The 
differences are pretty subtle and I'm still new enough not to appreciate 
them all, but most things are pretty much the same. OpenBSD's 
differences are really only apparent when you are doing security stuff 
(using pf for packet filtering being the most obvious difference). 
FreeBSD has a lot more utilities and user-friendly installation tools 
and tutorials available, but most stuff that works on FreeBSD also seems 
to work on OpenBSD. More stuff gets ported to FreeBD, and faster.

I am using OpenBSD for my firewall, so that machine doesn't have much on 
it. I am using FreeBSD for a web server and as an alternate desktop, so 
that is where I have been loading most of my utilities.

I am sure you could use OpenBSD as a desktop, but FreeBSD will probably 
make your life easier since people are more likely to port new tools to 
FreeBSD before they port them to OpenBSD. If you are just doing a plain 
vanilla firewall or server, OpenBSD should do equally well (and be more 
secure). FreeBSD can be quite secure as a desktop or a server though.

Of course there is also a difference in cultures, but that thread has 
gone on long enough....

-David