7 ms·

OpenBSD 4.9 Released

83 points by there 15y ago

pepijndevos 15y ago
Sexy website.
jcr 15y ago
You might not run OpenBSD, but if you're running ssh on your Linux system, then you're actually running OpenSSH from the OpenBSD project. If you appreciate being able to access your systems more securely through ssh, please consider supporting the project by buying a CD set, tshirt or poster from them. http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html
- younata 15y ago
  or, you know, just donate to the project.
  - jcr 15y ago
    Donations do help to fund the OpenBSD hackathons but buying CDs is still important. You can find more details here: http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20110419212345&mode=expanded http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=201104192...
    - younata 15y ago
      The link that points to [1] states the difference in where the money goes for CDs/donating. I wasn't aware of this split. [1] http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=130322381504860&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=130322381504860&w...
      - elithrar 15y ago
        It seems so strange that a group of some of the most knowledgable geeks we have rely on CD's to generate important parts of their funding.
        mburns 15y ago
        OpenBSD should start accepting Bitcoin donations.
        JoachimSchipper 15y ago
        OpenBSD is not owned by a charity, so the founder has to do credibly-commercial stuff to get food money. Selling CDs qualifies.
- viraptor 15y ago
  Actually it will run Portable OpenSSH. If you really care about donating for that cause, contacting the porting team might be a good idea.
  - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
    The "portable" part is not the major part of "portable OpenSSH", though. (It is nice, though.)
    - viraptor 15y ago
      I'm not sure what you mean. Portable openssh is openssh + support for non-openbsd systems. This also includes things like pam support. I'd say that the "portable" part is almost all there is to the "portable openssh" project.
      - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
        "Portable OpenSSH" is the result of adding "portable" to "OpenSSH". OpenSSH itself is clearly the main project.
- wazoox 15y ago
  By the way the t-shirts are really cool and incredibly geeky. I have the whole set. I particularly love the "SSHerif" model, I have 3.
protomyth 15y ago
The VMware Tools driver (vmt) is a nice to have.
ognyankulev 15y ago
NSD (Name Server Daemon) is a nice addition. It's used by RIPE root servers. http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/svn/nsd/trunk/doc/CREDITS http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/svn/nsd/trunk/doc/CREDITS
- SageRaven 15y ago
  I routinely deploy NSD and Unbound, and I've been very pleased with them. Easy to set up and lightweight.
jojo1 15y ago
"IPsec stack audit was performed, resulting in: Several potential security problems have been identified and fixed." ...nice euphemism.
- anonymous 15y ago
  So, how would you decribe what they've done? They found no trace of any backdoor whatsoever. The few parts that looked funny somehow have been rewritten in a more conservative manner, that's all.
- hackermom 15y ago
  What do you mean?
  - jojo1 15y ago
    http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=129543726419518&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=129543726419518&w=... http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=129537785019792&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=129537785019792&w=...
abdd0e77 15y ago
Also known to install FBI backdoors: http://cryptome.org/0003/fbi-backdoors.htm http://cryptome.org/0003/fbi-backdoors.htm
- SpikeGronim 15y ago
  No. That was thoroughly investigated and no backdoors were found. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2029175 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2029175
ivenkys 15y ago
Its actually one of the easiest O.S to install and work with when it comes to back-end servers for running network infrastructure type services (vpn, firewall, chat server, torrent server, dns, dhcp etc. etc.) - nothing comes close.
- nikuda 15y ago
  What are some reasons for OpenBSD not being a more popular OS on web servers? I always wondered about this, as on paper OpenBSD (and FreeBSD) seem like they have the edge but most server admins end up running linux. Another case of linux being slightly easier to use and doing the job well enough?
  - daydream 15y ago
    I'm a big fan of FreeBSD/OpenBSD as server OS's. I've put OpenBSD/pf to great use as firewall machines, as they're VERY easy to configure, and the docs are most everything you need. FreeBSD has been great for general-purpose workloads. For some time OpenBSD has been regarded as "slow", in big part because it couldn't use large amounts of RAM, and it scaled across multiple cores poorly. I'm not sure if this is still the case.
    - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
      5.0 will lift lots of memory-related limits (significant chunks of code are already in -current).
  - dagw 15y ago
    OpenBSD has never had performance as a driving criteria, and has for long time, both justly and unjustly, been considered "slow", especially on machines with more than two CPUs, when compared to Linux and FreeBSD. Though it's been 6 years or so since I did any sort of serious large scale sysadmin work with it so I don't know if things have changed.
  - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
    OpenBSD is not friendly to the kind of newbie who prefers HOWTOs, GUI admin tools, etc. It does have excellent man pages and tasteful text-based tools, though - e.g. http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/example1.html#allrules http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/example1.html#allrules is enough to configure a SOHO firewall.
se1sm 15y ago
i grew up close to these roots. glad to see Theo de Raadt and OpenBSD are alive & kicking it!
patrickgzill 15y ago
OpenBSD is the Van Morrison of operating systems.
Apocryphon 15y ago
After Linux and the BSDs, are the other major offshoots of *nix? Solaris?
- uriel 15y ago
  Plan 9 is the only real Unix offshoot.
  - RexRollman 15y ago
    I just played with Plan 9 this weekend on VirtualBox. It seems pretty awesome; too bad it never really took off.
    - cturner 15y ago
      I like to keep the manuals handy so that when I'm thinking about a problem I can compare them to Stevens and Kerrisk. Often it gives a new perspective. I didn't have the patience to get fast at developing in the environment.

83 points by there 15y ago

Sexy website.

jcr 15y ago

You might not run OpenBSD, but if you're running ssh on your Linux system, then you're actually running OpenSSH from the OpenBSD project. If you appreciate being able to access your systems more securely through ssh, please consider supporting the project by buying a CD set, tshirt or poster from them. http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html

younata 15y ago
or, you know, just donate to the project.
- jcr 15y ago
  Donations do help to fund the OpenBSD hackathons but buying CDs is still important. You can find more details here: http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20110419212345&mode=expanded http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=201104192...
  - younata 15y ago
    The link that points to [1] states the difference in where the money goes for CDs/donating. I wasn't aware of this split. [1] http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=130322381504860&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=130322381504860&w...
    - elithrar 15y ago
      It seems so strange that a group of some of the most knowledgable geeks we have rely on CD's to generate important parts of their funding.
      - mburns 15y ago
        OpenBSD should start accepting Bitcoin donations.
      - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
        OpenBSD is not owned by a charity, so the founder has to do credibly-commercial stuff to get food money. Selling CDs qualifies.
viraptor 15y ago
Actually it will run Portable OpenSSH. If you really care about donating for that cause, contacting the porting team might be a good idea.
- JoachimSchipper 15y ago
  The "portable" part is not the major part of "portable OpenSSH", though. (It is nice, though.)
  - viraptor 15y ago
    I'm not sure what you mean. Portable openssh is openssh + support for non-openbsd systems. This also includes things like pam support. I'd say that the "portable" part is almost all there is to the "portable openssh" project.
    - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
      "Portable OpenSSH" is the result of adding "portable" to "OpenSSH". OpenSSH itself is clearly the main project.
wazoox 15y ago
By the way the t-shirts are really cool and incredibly geeky. I have the whole set. I particularly love the "SSHerif" model, I have 3.

protomyth 15y ago

The VMware Tools driver (vmt) is a nice to have.

ognyankulev 15y ago

NSD (Name Server Daemon) is a nice addition. It's used by RIPE root servers. http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/svn/nsd/trunk/doc/CREDITS http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/svn/nsd/trunk/doc/CREDITS

SageRaven 15y ago
I routinely deploy NSD and Unbound, and I've been very pleased with them. Easy to set up and lightweight.

jojo1 15y ago

"IPsec stack audit was performed, resulting in: Several potential security problems have been identified and fixed." ...nice euphemism.

anonymous 15y ago
So, how would you decribe what they've done? They found no trace of any backdoor whatsoever. The few parts that looked funny somehow have been rewritten in a more conservative manner, that's all.
hackermom 15y ago
What do you mean?
- jojo1 15y ago
  http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=129543726419518&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=129543726419518&w=... http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=129537785019792&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=129537785019792&w=...

abdd0e77 15y ago

Also known to install FBI backdoors: http://cryptome.org/0003/fbi-backdoors.htm http://cryptome.org/0003/fbi-backdoors.htm

SpikeGronim 15y ago
No. That was thoroughly investigated and no backdoors were found. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2029175 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2029175

ivenkys 15y ago

Its actually one of the easiest O.S to install and work with when it comes to back-end servers for running network infrastructure type services (vpn, firewall, chat server, torrent server, dns, dhcp etc. etc.) - nothing comes close.

nikuda 15y ago
What are some reasons for OpenBSD not being a more popular OS on web servers? I always wondered about this, as on paper OpenBSD (and FreeBSD) seem like they have the edge but most server admins end up running linux. Another case of linux being slightly easier to use and doing the job well enough?
- daydream 15y ago
  I'm a big fan of FreeBSD/OpenBSD as server OS's. I've put OpenBSD/pf to great use as firewall machines, as they're VERY easy to configure, and the docs are most everything you need. FreeBSD has been great for general-purpose workloads. For some time OpenBSD has been regarded as "slow", in big part because it couldn't use large amounts of RAM, and it scaled across multiple cores poorly. I'm not sure if this is still the case.
  - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
    5.0 will lift lots of memory-related limits (significant chunks of code are already in -current).
- dagw 15y ago
  OpenBSD has never had performance as a driving criteria, and has for long time, both justly and unjustly, been considered "slow", especially on machines with more than two CPUs, when compared to Linux and FreeBSD. Though it's been 6 years or so since I did any sort of serious large scale sysadmin work with it so I don't know if things have changed.
- JoachimSchipper 15y ago
  OpenBSD is not friendly to the kind of newbie who prefers HOWTOs, GUI admin tools, etc. It does have excellent man pages and tasteful text-based tools, though - e.g. http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/example1.html#allrules http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/example1.html#allrules is enough to configure a SOHO firewall.

se1sm 15y ago

i grew up close to these roots. glad to see Theo de Raadt and OpenBSD are alive & kicking it!

patrickgzill 15y ago

OpenBSD is the Van Morrison of operating systems.

Apocryphon 15y ago

After Linux and the BSDs, are the other major offshoots of *nix? Solaris?

uriel 15y ago
Plan 9 is the only real Unix offshoot.
- RexRollman 15y ago
  I just played with Plan 9 this weekend on VirtualBox. It seems pretty awesome; too bad it never really took off.
  - cturner 15y ago
    I like to keep the manuals handy so that when I'm thinking about a problem I can compare them to Stevens and Kerrisk. Often it gives a new perspective. I didn't have the patience to get fast at developing in the environment.