[CS-FSLUG] UNIX vs. Linux?

[Frank Bax]

At 11:17 AM 9/14/04, Brian Derr wrote:

>On Sat, Sep 11, 2004 at 12:45:50PM -0500, Timothy R. Butler wrote:
> > I'm just wondering, how many of y'all are running a UNIX system like
> > FreeBSD or Mac OS X as compared to GNU/Linux? If you run a UNIX system,
> > do you run that in addition to GNU/Linux or is that essentially your
> > main OS?
>
>I have (had) an old Compaq Prosignia 500 server running OpenBSD 3.5.
>Due to a power failure a couple of months ago one of the hard drives
>failed.  Since it is a 3 disk SCSI RAID array the thing no longer boots.
>I check online at the price for replacement drives and they were $200
>and up.  Way more than I am willing to spend on a server that was free.
>
>Hardware issues aside, OpenBSD was GREAT as a firewall/router.  It was a
>bit more complicated to install but once it is in all the hardware
>worked without any problems whatsoever.  That includes the built-in NIC
>and SCSI tape drive.  If you have a need for a dedicated firewall/router
>box or a web host, give OpenBSD a try.  You won't regret it!


OpenBSD has been good for me.  They consistently put out a new stable 
release every six months (May & November).  I have been using it to host a 
dozen domains since Feb 2000 (at the time all Linux distro's I looked at 
came with too many services preloaded and enabled).  I'll admit it's not 
the most user friendly system to setup and that the most common response 
from the mailing list seems to be 'read the docs', but it does the job I 
need it to do well.  Their website claims "Only one remote hole in the 
default install, in more than 8 years!" (I think that hole was in OpenSSH 
code they were using).  They use a technique called 'greylisting' to filter 
spam (part of base install, but requires some setup/enabling) which is not 
content based at all (like most other spam filters).  I got it working over 
the summer and went live with it this month.  I do not have X on that 
server and do *all* maintenance remotely.  I did try KDE on OpenBSD on a 
home machine - read the docs carefully and its doable, not as easy as Linux 
distros.

There are about six Mandrake 9.1 workstations at a non-profit where I do IT 
support.  About 80 Win98 desktops and 1 WinXP laptop round out the machines 
there.  I am hoping to migrate from a NT4 server to Linux/Samba in the near 
future.

Frank