Should we be using `OpenBSD` instead of `Linux`?

[nelsonic]

As security-conscious people we want to maximise the security of what we are building at every level. OpenBSD is a security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenBSD

If you're new to BSD read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution And for a comparison of all the available BSDs see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BSD_operating_systems My reason for OpenBSD is that it's the most security-focussed OS.

OpenBSD is listed as a supported OS for Elixir: https://elixir-lang.org/install.html

And thankfully @nabbisen has written up these instructions for running PostgreSQL on OpenBSD: https://dev.to/nabbisen/installing-postgresql-11-2-server-on-openbsd-6-5-4oh9 so we know it works.

Infrastructure

• Linode: Looks like people are able to run OpenBSD on Linode. https://www.linode.com/community/questions/10329/openbsd-on-linode So we should not have any issues with running it on our current VPS provider.
• AWS: On AWS @lbernail has had good success, see: https://youtu.be/icR06naQ8LI

Read:

• 6 Reasons Why Linux Users Switch to BSD: https://itsfoss.com/why-use-bsd
• What makes OpenBSD more secure than Linux: https://www.reddit.com/r/BSD/comments/3w2d11/what_makes_the_bsd_family_more_secure_than
• Docker on OpenBSD: https://medium.com/@dave_voutila/docker-on-openbsd-6-1-current-c620513b8110

#discuss

I think it's worth us investing a few hours to get OpenBSD running on a local machine to test it. And if we feel comfortable with it, trying to run it on Linode.

[nelsonic]

https://www.openbsd.org/security.html

[nabbisen]

Hello. Thank you for your adding a reference to my post.

And thankfully @nabbisen has written up these instructions for running PostgreSQL on OpenBSD: https://dev.to/nabbisen/installing-postgresql-11-2-server-on-openbsd-6-5-4oh9 so we know it works.

I've written up a new post: https://dev.to/nabbisen/installing-postgresql-12-2-server-on-openbsd-6-7-3bj2 PostgreSQL 12.2 works well on OpenBSD 6.7, the latest, as well :)

[nelsonic]

Running OpenBSD 6.7 on my Mac via VirtualBox:

Going to try and follow the latest instructions to install PostgreSQL 🤞

[nelsonic]

An OpenBSD talk by Michael Warren Lucas (MWL) https://mwl.io author of Absolute OpenBSD https://youtu.be/BXPV3vJF99k

It's not a short talk but there's a decent amount of info in it. Worth watching if you want to understand OpenBSD. 📺