Linux vs FreeBSD, and other *NIXes

[kentborg at borg.org (Kent Borg)]

We use RH Linux on our boxes at work, so when I started playing with
my own hardware, I chose Red Hat too.  It seems that if one watches
for security updates and sets up the box kind of carefully, it is
pretty secure.

I can imagine that Open BSD is more secure--and certainly only putting
what one needs on a server is a wise way to be safe, but I have been
farting around to educate myself.  If I pruned my box back to what I
*needed* I would pull the power cord.

A kitchen-sink distribution (like Red Hat) has the advantage of being
a vast library that Red Hat watches for security holes (I just have to
watch Red Hat for their updates).  It is very nice, on seeing some
cool program mentioned on a mailing list, to discover I already have
it installed.

Red Hat seems to have been a good choice for me.  I would like to
learn more about the BSDs, however.


-kb