dwyl / dwyl/learn-security

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

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#73 5 comments 5 reactions 1 assignee Claimed by @SimonLab View on GitHub
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Description

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
![elixir-openbsd](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/194400/81397456-4708e380-911f-11ea-8554-b6cbbd04448c.png)

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.

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