Portal:Technology/Selected articles/12
OpenBSD is a freely available Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), a Unix derivative created by the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD, a previous open source operating system based on BSD, by project leader Theo de Raadt in 1994, and is known among open source enthusiasts for the developers' insistence on open source and documentation, uncompromising position on software licensing, and focus on security and code correctness. OpenBSD includes a number of security features not found or optional in other operating systems and has a tradition of developers auditing the source code for software bugs and security problems, such as W^X and a malloc implementation similar to Electric Fence. The project maintains strict policies on licensing and prefers the open source BSD licence and its variants—in the past this has led to a comprehensive licence audit and moves to remove or replace code under licences found less acceptable.