OpenBSD which is arguably the most security anal OS out there have just release their latest monty python inspired version 3.5. Check the OpenBSD 3.5 Release Notes Here for all the cool new stuff.

Some of my favorite features for using it as a firewall or generall purpose corporate mail/web/whatever server are:

• CARP Support for sharing an IP dynamically between multiple servers
• Email Greylisting
• If you are using a VIA C3 processor (These are popular in home built firewall boxes), their OpenSSL is configured to use the chips hardware AES accellerator.
• As always PF the built in packet filter (read firewall) is always improving. (To me PF is the number one reason for using OpenBSD.

They also claim major improvements in PThreads. I’ve always heard that pthreads was one of the reasons that Java was never stable on OpenBSD. Java is generally run under the built in linux emulation layer. For more information see State of Java/Tomcat on OpenBSD

If it was more stable I would move everything there. For now its superb for handling apache, mail, firewall etc.

The real reason why anyone should use OpenBSD, is that it works really well out of the box and is super secure. If you have any experience with Linux or Unix you can pick it up real quick. There are virtually zero gui admin tools that I know off, so if you aren’t willing to invest a bit of time in getting to know it, I wouldnt recommend it.

Remember to check the traditional Release Song