As a personal recommendation. Go with Red Hat 7.3 with the most updated patches if you are new to Linux/Unix Operating Systems, and OpenBSD with most updated patches if you are VERY, VERY comfortable with Unix at the command-line. The reason I say go with RH7.3 instead of Red Hat 8.0 is just for stability.
OpenBSD is much more secure out of the box then Red Hat, but a system hardening tool called Bastille (www.bastille-linux.org) is pretty good for locking down Red Hat. Red Hat-like Linux distros like Mandrake tend to be great for people just starting out in Linux. RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) files are like setup.exe files in windows. So software installation, software updates, and software removal is really easy because of rpm files on those types of systems.
In the end Red Hat can be locked down, and be about as secure as the BSD OSs, but the BSD style OS aren't anywhere near as easy to use as the new Linux OSs like Mandrake, Red Hat, and my personaly favorite Suse 8.0
Joe McCray
Check out my new place for a FREE, and legal place to learn network security in a hands on environment:
www.rootwars.org
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "GSG Designs" <gsgdesigns_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 20:56:24 +0000
>I'm fairly new to this, so please bare with me. If this question has been
>asked in the past, I apologize. I'm new to the listserv as well.
>
>We are discussing starting our own web server. There is debate on whether
>RedHat 8 or OpenBSD is more secure. What are your thoughts? We will be
>doing online orders with credit card info, etc. Do you have any resources
>to point us to? (We will be running Apache, probably a 'duh'.)
>
>Thanks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Broadband? Dial-up? Get reliable MSN Internet Access.
>http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp
>
>
________________________________________________________________
Sent via hardestworkingmanonline.com
Received on Nov 01 2002
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