back to article OpenBSD source tree turns 20 – version 5.8 of project preps for show time

OpenBSD's source tree just turned 20 years old. Today the project has 322,000 commits and contributions from more than 350 hackers since 1995. Its founder, Theo de Raadt, may be known for his cantankerous outbursts, but he's currently in a reflective and even – dare we say it – celebratory mood. de Raadt gave us a flavour of …

  1. Tomato42
    Facepalm

    The version control software also haven't changed: it's still CVS.

    1. keithpeter Silver badge
      Coat

      Lyrics

      @Tomato42

      "Found my way upstairs and read hackernews / whining about comic sans and CVS."

      OK, I saw what you did there.

      Coat: Back to marking...

      1. Tomato42
        Meh

        Re: Lyrics

        Use of comic sans is ironic, while use of CVS rots the mind.

        But no wonder that they need to turn as many people away from their presentations as they can. They need to tell outright lies to show that they are relevant at all (e.g. LibreSSL being part of Arch - it's less of a part of it than PPAs are part of Ubuntu).

        So, can we stop stroking Theo's ego?

    2. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: "it's still CVS."

      If it ain't broke...

      1. Tom 13
        Coat

        Re: "it's still CVS."

        Well some of us at least have WallGreens.

  2. tin 2

    There's ALWAYS a song isn't there?

    1. Chris King

      This time, you get THREE songs !

      1. Chris King

        Scratch that...

        There's FOUR of 'em this time !

  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Pint

    Excellent!

    I hope the Good Work continues and up-modernizes thoughtfully, and not in a systemd way...

  4. frank ly

    Is it a FOSS development leader requirement?

    "Its founder, Theo de Raadt, may be known for his cantankerous outbursts, ..."

    1. Fibbles

      Re: Is it a FOSS development leader requirement?

      Herding cats generally involves a lot of swearing.

    2. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

      Re: Is it a FOSS development leader requirement?

      He's better than he used to be, but yes, OpenBSD's development is deliberately hostile - they do not want people who are inexperienced, or unprepared to keep to the project's ethos, including its cross platform nature.

      Having said that, if someone puts in genuine effort, they're generally very helpful. It's the same with development and documentation - so long as you've read the docs first, people will help.

      1. Tomato42
        FAIL

        Re: Is it a FOSS development leader requirement?

        And that's what makes him "full of crap."

        https://lwn.net/Articles/658231/

        Linus does his outbursts to people he knows, Theo does that to everybody.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Is it a FOSS development leader requirement?

          "Linus does his outbursts to people he knows, Theo does that to everybody."

          The link you provided has nothing to do with Theo de Raadt, though. Theodore Ts'o is a completely different person.

  5. asdf

    value of cranky people

    >Linus does his outbursts to people he knows, Theo does that to everybody.

    Clueless poster aside in general what I want in my friends and what I want in the person driving development of the OS I use are two different things. Theo is responsible (with others granted) for just about the most secure modern general purpose open source OS (as well as many valuable side projects like OpenSSH) out there. Personality flaws aside that makes him more valuable to me than billions of other nicer people on this planet.

  6. chasil

    HardenedBSD

    I've never tried this distribution, but they do claim to have a vastly superior ASLR implementation.

    http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/15/07/25/2047210/hardenedbsd-completes-strong-aslr-implementation

    http://hup.hu/node/140322

    https://aboutthebsds.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/openbsds-aslr-weak-not-very-random-and-not-truly-aslr/

    1. asdf

      Re: HardenedBSD

      Thus queue up the age old (in IT dog years) argument that ASLR is simply a bandaid for incorrect code that is fairly easily defeated by a determined adversary. Theo and OpenBSD's philosophy tends to be to try to get your code correct and well audited in the first place (and where they spend their energy) because that is your best defense rather than trying to close the barn door after (especially in regards to grsecurity and SELinux). They were one of the first OS to offer ASLR but even if their implementation is weaker my guess is you are still safer with the OpenBSD code base (especially the base system) and weaker ASLR than you are with strong ASLR bolted on top of the FreeBSD code base.

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