ImprovedSource - A Linux Users Take On OpenBSD 3.7

A Linux Users Take On OpenBSD 3.7
by idontknow 2005-09-03 Category: OpenBSD

In this review I take a look at the latest release of OpenBSD, version 3.7. This is the second time I’ve had installed and used an OpenBSD system, since I spend most of my computing time on Linux/Windows systems. But what does OpenBSD have to offer? How does it differ from Linux? How does it do on the desktop? How does it do on the server side? These are some of the question I’ll be looking at in this review.

Our Test Machine

NVidia NForce 2 based Motherboard with AMD Athlon XP 2000
Integrated Nvidia Sound/Video on main board
256mb RAM
80Gb Hard Drive
16x DVD-ROM
Netgear MA101 USB wireless network adapter

The Installation

As you would have expected this release adds the usual round of updates to its software repository, but it also adds a new batch of wireless driver support. We are about to see if those drivers can find my Netgear MA101 USB wireless adapter. The installation utility packaged with OpenBSD is text-based, and walks you through the process in a step-by-step fashion. I recommend if you are new to OpenBSD to first print out the installation manual found at the OpenBSD website. The installer will ask you to partition your hard driver, configure what software to install, setup network information, as well as a few miscellaneous things like date/time and root password. While it is very simplistic in comparison to other operating systems (Ex. SUSE or Red hat), it will enable you to get your OpenBSD box on the network with a minimal set of software installed. The OpenBSD operating system itself did a great job of auto finding our test systems hardware, including the Netgear MA101 wireless adapter. I found the wireless driver support to be excellent, in fact better than most Linux distributions since up until now only SUSE out of the box could find this adapter. After the system is installed though you will have to configure your wireless adapter network information (IP address, etc), X Windows setup, and additional software packages (Including KDE/Gnome, Apache, etc). This has its pros and cons, the installation is a lot more involved and not nearly as user friendly as other systems but you will start off with a clean slate with no un-needed services and software packages installed. Plus, this gives OpenBSD an edge in security for the fact that un-needed services are not running.

The configuration

As I mentioned before, Once OpenBSD is installed it does require some post-install configuration. Unfortunately OpenBSD has a limited number of administrative and configuration tools. One solution for a user used to Linux is the Webmin web-based configuration utility (www.webmin.com) since it does support OpenBSD and Linux. This allows you to have a consistent configuration tool between OpenBSD and Linux. Anyway, I ended up just manually editing configuration in the “etc” directory. Plus, there is a good number of documentation that you can google for to help you out any number issues. As I mentioned earlier, you will have to manually install Gnome or KDE, and any other software you may need (Ex. Firefox). In comparison, most Linux distributions will have you system nearly ready to use after installation. Overall I found the configuration to be somewhat painful, but lets see the fruits of my labor.

Impressions of OpenBSD

The OpenBSD experience differs when compared to Linux. The OpenBSD development team has taken a strict stand on licenses. For example the latest Apache 2 series of web server software is not available in the OpenBSD software repository, instead only the Apache 1.3 series is available. Some may view this as a strength, but most I think will find this to be a disadvantage since the software package they need might may not be available. Also, I found that Linux has more documentation available and wider support for open source software. Yet OpenBSD has some advantages which I will discuss below.

The server side is a different story. It can fill all the roles needed including web server, email server, firewall, etc plus it’s backed with an excellent track record in security and uptime. I was able to setup a web server with PHP/MySQL by using OpenBSD’s package management utility, pkg_add (To see how this is done see here). You will then need to manually configure it to start at boot, and for PHP to work with Apache but overall it was rather easy. One complaint though, I could not find any automated way to check and apply updates system wide (like apt). I imagine applying patches to an OpenBSD server is quite time consuming because of this. Overall, I was very impressed with OpenBSD in the server role.

Conclusion

OpenBSD is indeed an excellent choice on the server side. On the desktop though it lags behind Linux. Yet, Is OpenBSD aiming for the desktop? Probably not. OpenBSD does what it does very well, and has an excellent security track record to back that up. OpenBSD’s minimalist approach saves it from bloat that comes with having everything auto installed, and gives you the opportunity to understand your system in and out. Yet, Is it worth a switch from Linux? This will depend on you requirements and needs.

Other ImprovedSource Articles:
Boot Fedora Linux Faster: How I Modified Fedora To Boot In Under 25 Seconds
How to make your Linux desktop look awesome
Linux Fastest Boot Time Challenge

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