I got started with BSDs just over 20 years ago when I needed to setup some servers and firewalls and the choice was between linux 2.2's ipchains or OpenBSD's pf

I got started with BSDs just over 20 years ago when I needed to setup some servers and firewalls and the choice was between linux 2.2's ipchains or OpenBSD's pf. I was blown away by the simplicity of the firewall rules syntax for pf and then became enamoured with other niceties like the emphasis on security and correctness, the logical filesystem hierarchy, the simple licensing, the UNIX pedigree (sort of), the completely integrated build system for userspace and kernel, the fact that you had to actually turn services on rather than have several daemons running unnecessarily, and MAN pages that actually were useful and had examples and everything. I'm still a big fan and have at least one of each major BSD variant running on one server or another just to keep up with developments across the space. So many innovations we take for granted come from the BSDs or were incubated there and they continue to innovate and refine the OSes in ways that I think more people should pay attention to. Just a few of the things that we can thank BSDs for: • The 'TCP/IP stack' • OpenSSH • OpenSMTPd • OpenBGPd • OpenNTPd • LibreSSL • privilege separation • pf • Darwin (The MacOS Kernel) • The Ports system (pkgsrc in NetBSD and DragonflyBSD. Inspired Gentoo) • A whole slew of security innovations : https://www.openbsd.org/innovations.html https://www.openbsd.org/innovations.html • NetBSD can run your toaster: https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/ https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/ • DragonflyBSD's HAMMER filestystem • OpenBSD's Todd Miller also looks after development of sudo