

OpenBSD 4.8 Released - there
http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20101101163826

======
16s
Theo still makes his own wheels with a hammer and a chisel. Rubber, store-
bought tires are for pansies... only joking... I buy CDs and t-shirts and no
matter what free Unix _you_ use, do buy CDs because the CD sales also support
OpenSSH and we all use that!

~~~
jrockway
The rubber store-bought tires all have huge holes in them that the vendors
would prefer you ignore.

I am not a C fan, but I've read the OpenBSD code and it's solid. Instead of
ignoring the details like integer truncation, string length, and error
checking, they actually _care_ about this stuff. The result is a reliable
system instead of a mostly-reliable system.

~~~
silentbicycle
Any time people ask for C code to read, I recommend the OpenBSD userland.
Between that, the outstanding man pages, and the thoroughly integrated memory
protection
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenBSD_security_features#Memor...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenBSD_security_features#Memory_protection)),
OpenBSD is an _excellent_ platform for C development.

------
zdw
OpenBSD is one of the BEST engineered Unix systems out there. It always amazes
me at the quality and professionality they put into each release.

It's also very simple - an installed base system will have around 20
processes, all of which are instantly recognizable, and nearly everything is
configured and documented in a straightforward manner.

Go build a firewall with OpenBSD. You will learn something new and be a better
sysadmin afterwards.

~~~
hello_moto
keyword: engineered.

That's how Theo run the team. Like an engineering project. Less hacking, more
engineering.

~~~
there
i'm confused, are you saying that hacking is a bad thing?

while there is a certain "release engineering" process that goes on every 6
months to slow down development, stabilize the code, freeze it, tag it, test
it, and ship it, all of the development work that is done between releases is
just hacking. there isn't a roadmap of features and what gets worked on is
whatever anyone feels like working on.

openbsd developers gather at hackathons
(<http://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html>) every so often to work closely with
others on specific features or projects, hash out ideas, test on weird
hardware, and just get to socialize with other developers that live in
different parts of the world. nobody is told what to do at those events and
unless it's a specific mini-hackathon for ports or pf or something, everyone
is kind of doing their own thing independently or in small teams.

~~~
fiveo
Not quite to a typical engineering process but I'm guessing it's much better
than a typical open source project where people just keep hacking the code and
do not care much the quality (security, performance, code quality, etc).

I think the idea is that developers should have some sort of SOP (Standard
Operating Procedure). I know some people will moan when they heard that
abbreviation, especially if people just want to "hack some code".

It comes down to discipline and professionalism really.

Interesting video:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7pkyDUX5uM>

"Twelve years ago OpenBSD developers started engineering a release process
that has resulted in quality software being delivered on a consistent 6 month
schedule -- 25 times in a row, exactly on the date promised, and with no
critical bugs. This on-time delivery process is very different from how
corporations manage their product releases and much more in tune with how
volunteer driven communities are supposed to function. Developer and testing
laziness is mostly circumvented and leader frustration is kept to a minimum.
The reasons, mechanics and social workings of our process have never been
detailed outside the project, but now will be, hopefully providing some
insight to others who face delays and quality issues with their own product
lines."

------
there
if you're interested in what other kinds of changes happen in a 6-month
release window, here is a full changelog:

<http://www.openbsd.org/plus48.html>

~~~
sgt
They're quite a productive little team.

------
bch
Looking forward to checking out the Intel GEM/DRM support for the modern
integrated gfx support.

edit: GEM reference --
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Execution_Manager>

OpenBSD inteldrm(4) -- [http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-
bin/man.cgi?query=inteldrm&se...](http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-
bin/man.cgi?query=inteldrm&sektion=4&format=html)

------
drv
The best part of every OpenBSD release: the release song.

<http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html>

~~~
superjared
I found the lyrics for 4.8 lacking, especially when compared with the lyrics
from 4.3:

<http://openbsd.org/lyrics.html#43>

------
bconway
Does anyone know of a well-supported equivalent to FreeBSD's NanoBSD build
system (<http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/nanobsd/index.html>) on
OpenBSD? I've been using a FreeBSD since '96 and love how easy it is to build,
distribute, and maintain NanoBSD images in any number of places (embedded
firewalls like Alix, VMs that support HVM, etc). Pf is a little outdated in
FreeBSD now (patchable to 4.5), and having the original would be nice.

~~~
silentbicycle
I'm not familiar with that package, but there have been several openbsd-misc
threads about running on nothing but a CF card, particularly on constrained
platforms like Soekris boards. That's probably a good starting point.

I haven't put OpenBSD on a real "embedded" system, but I've installed it on
stripped-down, ancient attic hardware over null modems. I don't doubt that it
would scale down even further. It makes an incredibly dependable firewall.

------
jparise
The top-level summary:

    
    
      This release adds better suspend and resume as well as new IKE and LDAP
      daemons, a bunch of network and SCSI stack improvements and much more!
    

No new platforms, but there's a bunch of updated hardware support and network
stack improvements.

------
lhnn
How much does Theo support OpenBSD?

If he got hit by a bus, would the project go on, or as smoothly?

~~~
fiveo
Project will go on. Smoothly? judge is out to decide. Theo is discipline.
Others? who knows.

