If you need a powerful desktop system with all the features you would expect from a complete Unix-like workstation, OpenBSD will do nicely. Graphic interfaces, office suites, web browsers, and other desktop software are available in the ports collection, OpenBSD also supports a variety of development tools, application environments, network servers, and other features that programmers and web developers need. If you’re a network administrator, you’ll find that OpenBSD supports packet sniffers, traffic analyzers, and all the other programs you rely on.

If you’re serving web pages, handling email, providing Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or database services, or offering any other sort of network service to clients, OpenBSD can help you. It’s a cheap and reliable platform. Once it’s set up, it just works. And, of course, it’s secure, which you cannot underestimate on the Internet.

OpenBSD makes an excellent firewall, bridge, or traffic shaper. You can use it to support intrusion detection software, web proxies, and traffic monitors. The integrated packet-filtering firewall and supporting software provides state-of-the-art network connection management and control, and can strip out many dangerous types of traffic before it reaches your servers. And its load-balancer features are competitive, with many commercial offerings that cost thousands of dollars more.