OpenBSD Project uses CD-ROM sales to fund OpenBSD
OpenBSD Project uses CD-ROM sales to fund OpenBSD development, and it would really prefer that if you want a CD-ROM, you purchase one. The disk images of the official install CD-ROMs is copyrighted by Theo de Raadt. The OpenBSD team adds some extras to the CD-ROM package, such as stickers and artwork, to make it more appealing. With a bit of searching, you will find OpenBSD ISO images on various Internet sites. Some of these are duplicates of the official ISO images, and are distributed in violation of Theo’s copyright. This is not only illegal in most parts of the world, it’s also just plain rude. Other ISO images on the Net are releases built by third parties who are not OpenBSD team members. While the release process is well documented, it still isn’t a very simple operation. You’re welcome to grab one of these ISO images and try to use it, but you should be warned that they have not been through the usual OpenBSD quality assurance process. Also, any joker can put up an ISO image, but you have no way to really know that such an image doesn’t contain a Trojan, backdoor, or other booby trap unless you thoroughly audit the image and compare it against an official OpenBSD install. If you’re going to go to that amount of trouble, you might as well shell out a few dollars and purchase an official CD-ROM anyway, or just try a FTP install! FTP Install Sites The main OpenBSD FTP site is at the University of Alberta, in Calgary, Canada. You can expect that the students are using all the bandwidth they can get for educational purposes, without sparing a thought for your OpenBSD needs. This makes the main FTP site slower that you might like. Fortunately, OpenBSD is mirrored all over the world. Go to the OpenBSD website and check the “FTP” link. This will bring up a whole list of mirror sites in a variety of formats FTP, HTTP, AFS, and so on. The list includes mirrors on every continent, including places such as Peru, Thailand, and Lithuania. There’s almost certainly one closer to you than the University of Alberta. OpenBSD FTP/HTTP Layout No matter how you get OpenBSD over the network, you’ll find the distribution site laid out much like this. 1 3.0/ 3.1/ 3.2/ 3.3/ 2 OpenSSH/ 3 README 4 distfiles/ 5 ftplist 6 patches/ 7 snapshots/ 8 songs/ 9 src/ tools/ The 1 numbered directories are for the various releases of OpenBSD. Above, we see that this FTP site contains versions 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3. You’ll only have one release directory on a CD-ROM, of course the directory for the release you have. The 2 OpenSSH directory contains the OpenBSD team’s implementation of SSH, which has been adopted by many different software projects, both free and commercial (i.e., Solaris). OpenBSD includes OpenSSH, and so you really don’t have to worry about getting it separately. The 3 README file contains very basic information about obtaining OpenBSD and where to get more information on the software. Page 39
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