Most people do not use OpenBSD as a desktop OS, though there are some people who swear by it. This chapter provides an overview of OpenBSD, including its development, features, and the tools available in this operating system for your business.
Overview of OpenBSD
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I agree with most of what the authors say. OpenBSD feels clean and well thought out, in the same way that good math feels clean. Like good math, it may be austere, and even a little unforgiving of user ignorance.
OpenBSD seems to be a natural platform for firewalls and many standard network services (DNS, DHCP, Squid, NFS, Samba, CUPS, Apache, …). It also runs Gnome & KDE quite well so I can function as an effective workstation. But I have had trouble with Java and Flash plug-ins, which may simply reflect my errors in understanding the Linux and/or FreeBSD emulation modes. So, I run OpenBSD on servers and run Windows, SuSE Linux and FreeBSD 5.x (where x is what ever is labled stable) for GUI clients.
So, the contents of the chapter ring true to me.
The BSDs are probably the best platform for networking, such as firewalls, routers, basic service providers, etc. If I were to set up a network from scratch, the whole network would be BSD with other OSes as the main servers (e.g., if I had an Oracle database) and clients (e.g., for secretaries, PHBs, etc.).
Perhaps the main challenge is finding out specifically which hardware is best supported for high reliability, since there aren’t many OEM shops selling certified BSD hardware.