Which BSD?

Tue, 15 May 2001 17:39:57 -0700

For a "first" BSD on an i386 platform, I would take a
look at FreeBSD.  FreeBSD was originally targeted at
the i386 platform so it has been optimized for (and offers
excellent performance on) that platform.

OpenBSD is geared towards security applications, such
as a firewall or a secure FTP/web server, although some
JLFs use OpenBSD for their desktop.  Note that the FTP
server or web server itself may not be secure, but at
least you're providing a reasonably solid foundation
for them (OS-level root exploits--ouch!)  NetBSD spawned
OpenBSD, so OpenBSD is multi-platform like NetBSD.

NetBSD runs on LOTS of platforms, and is geared towards
OS researchers and the like.  Got a toaster oven?  Run
NetBSD on it!

HTH,

D

* On Tue, May 15, 2001 at 01:03:22PM -0700, AZ_Pete wrote:
> Hello All,
> I don't know if this is the place to ask, but I have seen other BSD threads
> floating around, so I thought I start here.
> I have a spare box I would like to start playing with BSD to add to my Linux
> network at home.
> However, I don't know which BSD to try: OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD.
> What are  the differences among them?  Any Recommnedations?
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> The hardware is: AMD K3-450, 128MB Ram, 9GB IDE HD, 3Com NIC, AGP VGA.
> 
> Peter