From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jan 8 17:24: 0 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from wantadilla.lemis.com (wantadilla.lemis.com [192.109.197.80]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 726C237B400 for ; Mon, 8 Jan 2001 17:23:40 -0800 (PST) Received: by wantadilla.lemis.com (Postfix, from userid 1004) id 1EC596A90D; Tue, 9 Jan 2001 11:53:38 +1030 (CST) Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 11:53:38 +1030 From: Greg Lehey To: jimmy fix Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: bsd flavors Message-ID: <20010109115338.I43199@wantadilla.lemis.com> References: <3A61870D@operamail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <3A61870D@operamail.com>; from jim_fix@operamail.com on Mon, Jan 08, 2001 at 10:32:18AM -0500 Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-418-838-708 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog X-PGP-Fingerprint: 6B 7B C3 8C 61 CD 54 AF 13 24 52 F8 6D A4 95 EF Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Monday, 8 January 2001 at 10:32:18 -0500, jimmy fix wrote: > hi there... > > i'm new to bsd and would like to make the following question: > > considering i'd use bsd for: > 1. desctop (workstation) system with dial-up to ISP > 2. experiment with networking at home with a few old systems i plan to load > bsd on and try configure as firewall, server etc > > which would u think to be the best flavor? freebsd, openbsd or > netbsd. There's not much to choose between them. I think you'll find the best level of documentation with FreeBSD. > for example it is said that netbsd has extensive networking > etc. does that mean that the others are somehow limited. No, I think the term "extensive" is relative to things like Microsoft. Each BSD has some support that the others don't, but the difference isn't very great. > i mean could i set up freebsd as proxy or firewall ? (just basic > stuff to learn). Yes. > or openbsd security...do i realy need that kind of stuff for dial-up > workstation and basic server configurations usage? Well, it's good to be secure if you're connecting to the Internet. But all of the BSDs are secure, OpenBSD just stresses the fact a little more. > it seems that there is a lot of info about each flavor but not too > much on which one to use as beginner etc... You can't really go wrong as long as you can find enough documentation. About the difference between the BSDs. Look at the slogans: FreeBSD for performance: "The power to serve". NetBSD for portability: "Of course it runs NetBSD". OpenBSD for security: "Three years without a remote hole in the default install". Greg -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. If you don't, I may ignore the reply. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message