[ale] Newbie Greg's Question of the Day - Smoothwall vs OpenBSD

[Kenneth W Cochran]

>From owner-ale at ale.org  Sat Aug 11 22:39:50 2001
>From: "Greg" <runman at telocity.com>
>To: <scott at smnolde.com>, <ale at ale.org>
>Subject: RE: [ale] Newbie Greg's Question of the Day - Smoothwall vs OpenBSD
>Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 22:38:36 -0400
>
>Do your have any experience with NetBSD ?  Is it something designed strictly
>for internet/intranet usage ?  Also, can I run Linux programs on FreeBSD ?

NetBSD is designed for the same sorts of things any other
Unix-type OS is designed for.  :)  NetBSD's "emphasis" is
on cross-platform portability.  Both FreeBSD & OpenBSD can
run Linux programs & I think (but I'm not certain) NetBSD
can do the same.

>(ie. StarOffice, Gnucash, Win4Lin, etc ?)  I have noticed that there are no

StarOffice & GnuCash can both run on FreeBSD; Win4Lin
cannot (I don't think), but FreeBSD can run WINE.

>books on OpenBSD, but several on FreeBSD. Are there any companies supporting
>FreeBSD or is it something that is just "out there" ?

FreeBSD is supported primarily by mailing-lists.  Check
their Web site(s) for further information.

http://www.freebsd.org
(also http://www.openbsd.org & http://www.netbsd.org :)

>Sorry if these seem stupid questions, I give greater weight to someone is
>using this stuff as opposed to strictly researching it on the Internet (and
>I work in a 110% M$ IT shop where no one knows or cares about anything
>except Microcrap...<rant>  though Bill has made it really simple and easy to
>work with - Look Ma ! I can insert a disk, hit "install" and I am a sys
>admin !! wahoo !) </rant>
>
>TIA
>Greg Canter
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:	scott at smnolde.com [mailto:scott at smnolde.com]
>Sent:	Saturday, August 11, 2001 7:50 PM
>To:	Greg
>Subject:Re: [ale] Newbie Greg's Question of the Day - Smoothwall vs OpenBSD
>
>Greg,
>
>For a firewall and web server, nothing beats FreeBSD.  Linux has it's
>great points, but for stability under heavy load, FreeBSD is it.
>Installing FreeBSD is simpler than OpenBSD and nothing beats the ports
>collection for installing and updating software.

FreeBSD also has a very nice system for
updating/maintaining the OS itself.  :)

>BTW, OpenBSD and all the BSDs are real UNIX operating sytems whereas
>GNU/Linux, is linux-like.  Functionality between the *nixes is very sililar.
>
>Feel free to visit #freebsd, #freebsdhelp, and #bsdvault on
>irc.openprojects.net if you have further questions.
>
>I don't want to seem like I'm busting on linux, but I'm not.  Linux is
>great, but for ease of management, I find FreeBSD does an excellent job at
>everything I need it to.

Seconded.  Linux is Wonderful, as is *BSD.  They each (&
each Linux distro as well) have their relative strengths &
project goals.

>- Scott
>
>On Sat, 11 Aug 2001, Greg wrote:
>
> >Apparently while playing OS roulette (I was replacing MS 2k & 98 Winbloze
> >with Linux on several of my home machines) and in the process hosing my
> >email my question never made it to the right place for this group.
> >
> >Does anyone have any experience with either Smoothwall or OpenBSD ?  For the
> >OpenBSD especially when used as a firewall and hosting Apache with Jserv.  I
> >would like to start my home system small (read simple) with a DMZ and a
> >choke point and bastion firewalls with Smoothwall and a web server using
> >Linux in the DMZ and maybe later graduate to using OpenBSD for the web
> >server and an app server in the DMZ..  All of which I intend to run on
> >several P-133 and 486's I rescued from my company's dumpster.  Maybe later
> >converting the home intranet server to OpenBSD too.  I have been researching
> >both for sometime and Smoothwall appears to be a pure firewall app using a
> >cut down Red Hat distro with a simple to configure interface and a kernel
> >stripped for firewalling and nothing else.  It is advertised to run on
> >low-powered (486 - 368) hardware.
> >
> >OpenBSD seems to be a more secure form of Linux that requires more in-depth
> >knowledge to use - and the OpenBSD newsgroup that I subscribe to appears to
> >be somewhat over my head and more interested in flaming those new to the
> >system rather than helping others and promoting their OS (oh my, what IF
> >they found out I used to be a VB / ASP programmer/scripter whatever....  They
> >might just form a lynchin' party an' come after me !!)  So, any help from
> >anyone on this newsgroup would be appreciated.
> >
> >Also, while I missed the ALE meeting (had to help fix my company's primary
> >mission - critical - gotta' - have -  it -  to - exist software) I would
> >like to help in the Install Fest.  Having left the Dark Side (M$) only
> >several months ago I can really relate to anyone just starting to look at
> >alternatives.
> >
> >TIA
> >Newbie Greg
> >
> >--
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