[geeks] State of the BSDs (Was: [rescue] Transplanting a Sun Fire V210 motherboard - PSU requirements?)

[Andrew Jones]

On 02/27/2013 05:02 PM, Bill Green wrote:
>
> I'd be interested to hear your (and Mouse's) thoughts about the state
> of the various BSDs.  Why don't you trust Free- and Net- (anymore)?  I
> know that Mouse uses older versions of NetBSD, also.  I think I may
> have an idea of why you might not "trust" them -- I've had my own
> problems with recent NetBSD releases -- but I'd like to hear your
> reasons articulated, if you wouldn't mind, especially as you say your
> opinion dates back years.

I'll rise to the flamebait.

It's 2013.  OpenBSD lacks basic security features. However much faith 
you place in its authors, it is distinctly inferior to modern options.

I don't doubt that Mouse et al feel more comfortable with codebases they 
spent time with in the 1990s, but the outside world has moved on.

I, speaking for myself, consider mandatory access control to be a 
necessary basic feature of any UNIX.  Most UNIX systems offer good choices:

* FreeBSD has mac_lomac and trustedbsd.

* Linux has SELinux and AppArmor.

* Solaris, relative dinosaur that it is, has Trusted Solaris.

* OpenBSD has rambling mailing list screeds on the thesis that modern 
technology is pointless/unnecessary in the face of ever more careful 
code reviews.