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Date:      Mon, 22 Nov 1999 11:31:29 +0100
From:      Matthias Buelow <token@wuff.mayn.de>
To:        trouble@netquick.net, Allix Primus <alleve@idirect.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: OpenBSD, NetBSD vs FreeBSD ?
Message-ID:  <19991122113129.B17015@wuff.mayn.de>
In-Reply-To: <3838C8EC.73A3453@netquick.net>; from TrouBle on Sun, Nov 21, 1999 at 11:39:08PM -0500
References:  <98846.942829802@axl.noc.iafrica.com> <010401bf349f$23015ec0$44ecfea9@user> <3838C8EC.73A3453@netquick.net>

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TrouBle wrote:

>for Security, definatley OpenBSD. yet FreeBSD is also secure. OpenBSD is
>just paranoid secure out of the box.

Just because some people developping it are paranoid doesn't imply
that the operating system is secure :).
Joke aside, I haven't found any evidence that OpenBSD is any more
secure than Free- or NetBSD.  On Bugtraq, all three get their shares
of the eventual exploit.  I think the "OpenBSD the most secure blahblah
under the sun" thing is mostly primitive marketing drivel.  I don't want
to say that it might not be so but until there is some statistical proof
it is a rather vaporish claim, imho.  There have been bugs found in
OpenBSD that were not in NetBSD at the time the latter forked off
so nobody can claim perfection for his work.

I'm writing this so that new users don't get the idea that OpenBSD
is the only secure thing and FreeBSD is somehow insecure.
Any operating system is insecure to some degree and OpenBSD and
FreeBSD certainly fall into the same equivalence class.  Just because
someone installs OpenBSD he shouldn't think that all his security
concerns will suddenly be blown away.  OTOH, if someone choses Net-
or FreeBSD he shouldn't fear that he will open a can of worms,
security-wise.  All three projects do active security auditing and
respond to weaknesses rather quick and successfully.

mkb


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