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Hey, I just became a member. This is a nice website.

So my question is what are the difference between OpenBSD and FreeBSD...They both seem to be about the same. Thanks for the help (if i get any).:)

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— good question. and sketched the high-level differences; the notes below add concrete, practical distinctions, mention a few OpenBSD/FreeBSD projects you’ll actually run into, and give a simple way to decide which to try first.

OpenBSD tends to produce small, well-scoped system components that are developed as part of the base OS and reused elsewhere. Two examples you will see everywhere are OpenSSH (the portable SSH suite) and the PF packet filter — both originated in the OpenBSD project and are maintained alongside the base system. That mindset leads to a compact base install and a conservative, tightly integrated toolset. (openssh.com)

FreeBSD aims for broad platform support, performance tuning and flexible system administration. Notable FreeBSD features include the jails framework for OS-level isolation and a mature Ports system for building and packaging third-party software; the FreeBSD Handbook provides step-by-step guides for both. Those capabilities make FreeBSD a strong choice when you need container-style isolation, heavy service hosting, or fine-grained tuning. (docs.freebsd.org)

Practical checklist: pick by role — networking appliance or small security-focused box (look at OpenBSD’s base tools and PF), or multi-service hosts and infrastructure where jails, ports and performance matter (look at FreeBSD). To decide for your case, reproduce your workload in a VM or two: install the minimal image, enable the services you plan to run, and measure behaviour (memory, I/O, network). Read each projects’ handbook/FAQ for real-world examples before committing to production. That will give a clearer answer than generalities alone. (openbsd.org)

(Thanks to and for the original comparisons in this thread; their observations are a good starting point when you move from theory to testing.)

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Member Avatar for liliafan

Hey, I just became a member. This is a nice website.

So my question is what are the difference between OpenBSD and FreeBSD...They both seem to be about the same. Thanks for the help (if i get any).:)

Since I have little experience with both I can only comment based on my experiences and things I know are common knowledge.

FreeBSD is designed to be more user friendly than openbsd, it is also more key towards developers and desktop users.

OpenBSD is much more secure, supposedly the most secure BSD available if not the most secure operating system in the world, only one vulnerability found in the last 7 years in the default install.

They also both have totally different branches of development which means each will have code and features that the other is missing.

All BSD's come from the same orginial sources but they have all branched off into seperate development trees to support different things and be keyed towards different tasks.

I am sure there is a major BSD geek going to give you a much more detailed answer than that but from my understanding and limited knowledge (I have been running openbsd for a year on 2 servers and freebsd on and off from about 3 years but I haven't ever gone into more detail in learning beyond what I needed to know to do the tasks at hand).

HTH anyway

Ben

Member Avatar for Martian

Thanks for the help. It was most appreciated.

Member Avatar for alc6379

FreeBSD isn't neccesarily less secure than OpenBSD. It's just that OpenBSD is audited for exploits. Its default install doesn't have any remote security holes.

FreeBSD patches all of the holes that they find, so a properly updated FreeBSD is just as secure as an OpenBSD system. It is a little bit more user-friendly than a default OpenBSD install, though. That, and FreeBSD has a larger selection of packages available through the ports system.

Member Avatar for Martian

Cool. Thanks for the info.

Member Avatar for MAD_DOG

Just for everyone's information FreeBSD 4.10 is out. Grab it @ www.linuxiso.org

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