OpenBSD Appreciation

[Rodney Hopkins <rhopkins_(_at_)_sunflower_(_dot_)_com>]

Alright, this is way off topic, but I had to blow off some steam.......

I spent much of today working on a friend's RedHat Linux box and I just 
want to say how much more simple, direct and to the point OpenBSD is.  What 
I needed to do today, I could have done in a couple of hours tops on an 
OpenBSD box.  It took us more than 8 hours on the RedHat box.

Everything is so convoluted and buried.  The SysV init stuff is just nasty 
in my opinion.  OpenBSDs startup files seem a lot more straightforward to 
me.  The man pages suck on RedHat.  There's no consistency.  Every tool you 
use feels like it was written by an entirely different person or group, 
which it probably was, but still it shouldn't feel that way.  OpenBSD 
doesn't have that 
"jumble-of-programs-from-a-million-different-people-thrown-together-and-called-an-operating-system" 
feel.

And, I spent a good long time trying to figure out how to get RedHat to run 
telnetd so it listened on only one interface.  I never could figure it 
out.  I'm guessing it can be done, but I sure couldn't figure out 
how.  It's not documented the man pages for inetd that I could find.  In 
OpenBSD, I just edit the inetd.conf file and at the interface address I 
want it to listen to in front of the telnetd service, boom!  Works like a 
charm.  And it's documented that way in the man pages for inetd.conf 
too!  Imagine that.  Simple, direct, to the point, highly functional and 
DOCUMENTED.  Does it get any better than that?  I love my OpenBSD!!!!!

In closing, I just want to say to the entire OpenBSD team, you guys 
ROCK!  Not only did you create the most secure free operating system on the 
planet, but it's really pretty easy to use and it has a very cohesive 
feel!  You have done an EXCELLENT job bringing a lot of disparate parts 
together and molding them into a single unit.  Even though, I've always had 
a great deal of respect for the job you do, I just want to take this 
opportunity to say, bless you all and keep up the great work!  You guys 
really don't get enough kudos for the job you do and I know it feels like 
all you hear from us (l)users is complaints, but I hope you'll take this 
from me as a very large pat on the back and know that you and the job you 
do truly are appreciated. Thank you all very much!

Rodney Hopkins
rhopkins_(_at_)_sunflower_(_dot_)_com