BSD For Linux Users
Dru Lavigne
Chair, BSD Certification Group
Ontario LinuxFest 2009

This presentation will cover...
What is this BSD you speak of? (frame of
reference)
How is it different? (will I like it?)
Release engineering? (behind the scenes)
Any features unique to BSD? (am I missing
out on anything cool?)
Books (some recommended reading)

What is this BSD you
speak of?

aka What is this Linux
you speak of?

kernel?

distro?

Ubuntu?

Back to BSD....
Since we only have 45 minutes.....
We'll start with an overview of the BSD
projects
Then concentrate on some differences
between the BSD and Linux way of doing
things

Back to BSD....
Differentiated by focus:
NetBSD: clean design and portability (57
supported platforms)
FreeBSD: production server stability and
application support (20,715 apps)
OpenBSD: security and dependable release
cycle
Dragonfly BSD: filesystem architecture
PC-BSD: anyone can install and use BSD

How is it different?

Gnome on Ubuntu vs.

KDE on PC-BSD

device names

startup (no runlevels)

one config file philosophy

kernel configuration

consistent layout (man hier)

BSD vs GNU switches

working examples

Release Engineering?

Release Engineering
Complete operating system, not kernel +
distro: one source for security advisories,
less likelihood of incompatible libraries
Integration of features not limited by
copyleft: e.g. drivers and features are built-
in
High “bus factor”
Consistent separation between operating
system and third party and between BSD
and GPL'd code

Release Engineering
● While each BSD project has a separate
focus, the communities share ideas/code
● FreeBSD 408 commit bits
● NetBSD 259 commit bits
● OpenBSD 122 commit bits
● plus thousands of contributors for
software, docs, translations, bug fixes, etc
● Linux has 1 committer, 547 maintainers

Release Engineering
Principles used by the BSD projects reflect
their academic roots:
● well defined process for earning a
“commit bit” includes a period of working
under a mentor
● code repository from Day 1 and can
trace original code back to CSRG days
● no “leader”, instead well defined release
engineering, security, and doc teams

Release Engineering
● development occurs on CURRENT which is
frozen in preparation for a RELEASE
● nightly builds (operating system and
apps) help ensure that upgrades and
installs don't result in library
incompatibilities (safe for production)
● documentation considered as important
as code

Features unique to
BSD?

securelevels

FreeBSD jails

NetBSD build.sh

pkgsrc

PC-BSD PBIs

VuXML and portaudit
or pkg_admin audit
for pkgsrc systems

NetBSD veriexec

binary emulation

FreeBSD netgraph

ZFS support

FreeBSD dtrace suport

CARP

FreeBSD superpages

OpenBSM

FreeBSD snapshots

ALTQ

DragonFly HAMMER

Books:
BSD Hacks
Best of FreeBSD Basics
Definitive Guide to PC-BSD (early 2010)
Absolute BSD
Absolute FreeBSD
Absolute OpenBSD

Questions:
dru@osbr.ca
Stop by the BSD booth and say hi!