930 words [ 11 Screenshots ] [ 27 Versions ] [ 5 Weblinks ] - Last update: 2023-12-22 Page created: 2004-04-03 [SB]
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is descended from NetBSD 1.0 (1994) and split in October 1995 through Theo de Raadt in an independent distribution. Leading figure of this operating system is a fish named Puffy. OpenBSD is regarded as the safest open source operating system and stands under the BSD licence. By "Secure by Default" and code audits OpenBSD had a secure base. All unimportant services are in the standard installation deactivated. This project started with an effortful, systematic source code audit by different techniques in summer of the year 1996. This way thousands of security related errors and other software errors in the source code were discovered and cleared in acceptable time. To hold the high security demand, 6 to 12 members in a team continue to search and fix new security gaps often before these arise or become known. The name of devices like hard disks in the "/dev" directory follows a scheme of its own. E.g. the first partition on the first IDE hard disk is described as wd0a, the second partition is named wd0b.It was announced at the 2003-04-17 that the development of OpenBSD is not promoted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) any more. Few days later the financial support also was stopped by representatives of the University of Pennsylvania for the project, the annual developer convention Hackathon must get by on that without paid accommodations for the participants. The financing lie now again only on donations and sales of CD-ROM and merchandizing articles.
The OpenBSD team also developed OpenSSH, a free variant of the known protocol. OpenBSD is used as operating system for services preferentially in the network and is available for many platforms. The software variety is expandable by the optional binary compatibility to SVR4, (inclusive Solaris), IBCS2 Binaries, Linux, FreeBSD and BSD/OS.
OpenBSD release 3.6
There were the SMP support for i386 and AMD64 systems, new hardware drivers, support of USB 2.0 as well as numerous security and bug fixes.
OpenBSD release 3.7
Numerous bug fixes and security corrections were made as well as improvements at the hardware support in this new release. There is the gcc in version 3.3.5 now, as X-Window server version 6.8.2 of X.org is used for the display of the user interface and alternative XFree86 3.3.6. New supported hardware platforms are the Zaurus PDAs and the workstation O2 of SGI (64-bit, MIPS).
OpenBSD release 3.8
- new drivers for network cards, SCSI and RAID controller
- UDF file format for DVD,
- functions like malloc and libc new programmed
- optimized NFS efficiency
OpenBSD release 4.1
- supported hardware platforms enhanced and improved, version for Landisk systems with SH4 CPUs, SPARC64 support for UltraSPARC III improved
- support improved for USB controllers, network drivers, hard disc controllers and mobile devices
- update of the software OpenSSH 4.6, DNS-Server Bind 9.3.4 and X.org 6.9.0
The complete foundation of the OpenBSD foundation in Canada was announced at 2007-07-25. The purpose is the support of the OpenBSD projects with connected projects like OpenSSH, OpenBGPD, OpenNTPD and OpenCVS.
MirOS BSD is a derivative of OpenBSD. His origin is located in the Patchkit developed by Thorsten Glaser with the name BSD-mirabile for OpenBSD. The first release was on 2002/11/10. The Patchkit evolved into an independent operating system distribution. Few persons work on this project till now. It exists already ported source code for the x86 and SPARC platform, further portings are planned. In contrast to OpenBSD MirOS was facilitated about rare used code. As language only English is supported, there is no support for NLS (National Language Support). Where it is appropriate, many code was included in the project by FreeBSD and less code of NetBSD. A frequent synchronization takes place with the OpenBSD source code, with the NetBSD code less frequently. MiroOS is designed as an operating system for the field of the communications servers, router and developer desktop till now.
emBSD raised from the OpenBSD project and was optimized particularly to a low installation size. This operating system is primary suitably as router and firewall. It needs not once a fixed disk, a CompactFlash card with 32 mbyte storage space. Version 1.0 was released in March 2001, Version 1.1 few months later in May 2001.
Anonym.OS is an OpenBSD 3.8 distribution on a live CD particularly for the anonymous and encrypted internet access. After the boot from CD-ROM only a couple of questions about the internet access must be answered before the Internet connection is made. As applications the Firefox internet browser as well as a e-mail and Instant Messaging program are available. The operating system was hardened against attacks and secured by removed unnecessary files and services. The kernel became patched for security, many encrypted Internet protocols are supported. The data traffic as well as contents is filtered and about the anonymization service gate transported. To protect the operating system on the base, the network fingerprint was changed to hide the real installed operating system. It is recognized as a Windows XP operating system with SP1. The idea for this project cames from Taylor Banks in March 2005. The members of kaos.theory introduced this live CD officially on the hackers Convention ShmooCon in January 2006.
OliveBSD is an OpenBSD live CD of Gabriel Paderni. The first version was published on 2006/18/02 and released as an ISO image for the download. This distribution contains only the most important application programs and build on the slim window manager IceWM. The Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client and Firefox browser are included. Gimp provides the image processing and XMMS to play various multimedia files.
Date - Version
1995 Oct. - OpenBSD 1.01996 Oct. - OpenBSD 2.01997 June - OpenBSD 2.11997 Dec. - OpenBSD 2.21998 May - OpenBSD 2.31998 Dec. - OpenBSD 2.41999 May - OpenBSD 2.51999 Dec. - OpenBSD 2.62000 June - OpenBSD 2.72000 Dec. - OpenBSD 2.82001 June - OpenBSD 2.92001 Dec. - OpenBSD 3.02002 May - OpenBSD 3.12002 Nov. - OpenBSD 3.22003 May - OpenBSD 3.32003 Nov. - OpenBSD 3.42004 May - OpenBSD 3.52004 Nov. - OpenBSD 3.62005 May - OpenBSD 3.72005 Nov. - OpenBSD 3.82006 May - OpenBSD 3.92006 Nov. - OpenBSD 4.0, improved hardware support, updated software2007 May - OpenBSD 4.12007 Nov. - OpenBSD 4.2, more device drivers, more supported platforms2008 May - OpenBSD 4.32008 Nov. - OpenBSD 4.42009 May - OpenBSD 4.5