[tor-relays] OS diversity of tor relays (was Re: Relay uptime versus outdated Tor version)

[Scott Bennett]

Ybslik <contact at ybslik.xyz> wrote:

>              I have been following the emails with intrigue. I run a 
> 
> [details omitted  --SB]
>
> My relay is called Ybslik - it's been up and down due to my inability to 
> understand how to configure things within the terminal.
>
> But with the help from StackExchange I have been able to complete some 
> tasks.
>
> My small relay is now working ok and I hope adding to the Diversity of Tor.
>
     Thank you for running a relay.
     Duncan <dguthrie at posteo.net> has already pointed out that choosing one
of the two most heavily represented relay OS reduces, rather than increases,
relay OS diversity.  I thank you for your intent, even though you apparently
misunderstood what was meant by diversity.  In any case, I commend your
bravery and energy in taking up a system new to you to run tor, but I also
recommend you study security issues and features closely in any OS with which
you are not yet intimately familiar but choose for running a relay.
     Having written that, if you someday choose to tackle learning yet
another OS, please consider running a relay on one of the underrepresented
relay OS.  See, for example and in merely alphabetical order, Bitrig,
DragonflyBSD, FreeBSD, Illumos, MINIX, MirOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, NextBSD,
OpenSolaris, TrueOS (bleeding-edge FreeBSD specially packaged for novices and
the only slightly involved:^), or any other OS on which tor builds properly
yet is currently poorly represented among existing tor relays.  If I'm not
mistaken, among the four largest BSD projects (i.e., FreeBSD, DragonflyBSD,
NetBSD, OpenBSD), NetBSD is the most weakly represented among tor relays,
which is too bad (IMO) because it is a very high-performance system that runs
on damned nearly every kind of device with some kind of CPU chip in it, which
makes it terrific for increasing hardware architectural diversity among
relays, too.  DragonflyBSD is probably second rarest of those four in the tor
relay population.
     Learning these OS can have other, peripheral benefits, too.  For example,
you will find packet filters, file systems, scheduling and dispatching
algorithms, I/O subsystems, virtual memory models, virtual machine support,
etc. that are not found in Windows or LINUX.  That is not to say that they are
necessarily better than what you might find in LINUX, but they demonstrate a
lot of different, creative, and interesting ideas about how to do things that
you don't get exposed to by restricting your experience to the most heavily
used OS.  IMO, though, they are almost always better than what is available to
choose from in Windows.


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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