Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 15:51:22 -0500 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> To: Alan Freedman <freedman@computerlanguage.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: I'm writing about FreeBSD... Message-ID: <3E7A29CA.2050201@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20030320112854.02439120@mail.comcat.com> References: <5.1.0.14.2.20030320112854.02439120@mail.comcat.com>
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Alan Freedman wrote: > Dear FreeBSD People: Hello computerlanguage.com person. > I'm the Editor-In-Chief of Computer Desktop Encyclopedia and would like > to add an entry for FreeBSD. What I'm most curious about is what's the > difference between FreeBSD and OpenBSD? OpenBSD is more like NetBSD than FreeBSD. > Any chance you could illuminate me? I'm on deadline and would really > appreciate any help you could give. The main differences are the project goals, which can be seen on the websites. The exact differences in codebase and commands are beyond easily describing. To put it in a few short sentences: OpenBSD is primarily focused on security. Everything else in development takes a back seat to security. OpenBSD also pioneered a proactive approach to security that it seems everyone else (who cares about security) is trying to mimic. OpenBSD also inherits a lot from NetBSD, which it is descended from, which means it runs on tons of different hardware. FreeBSD has focused primarily on i386 architecture until relatively recently. While FreeBSD is very secure, it's entire existence doesn't revolve around security like OpenBSD. FreeBSD is not a descendent of NetBSD, but (like NetBSD) is a direct descendent of the original BSD. Both are excellent systems and have their merits. I doubt I've given you anything authoritative enough for your dictionary, but hopefully I've given you some ideas as to where you can research more. -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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