"Ryan McBride: The "Linux stack" is a concept that is very hard to pin down because there are so many versions, distributions, 3rd party patches and modules, etc. People might tell you that Linux has the capability to do X, Y, or Z that OpenBSD enables by default, but they don't tell you that you have to dig around for the patches, enable the right compile flags, load the right modules and sacrifice a goat on the full moon. And even then it's incomplete and buggy."

The only "Linux IP stack" there is is the one that is part of the official kernels, downloadable from http://www.kernel.org. It isn't hard to pin down at all.

Anthing else are "unofficial" patches that haven't been included for various reasons. Possibly, the code isn't of a quality to incorporate, and needs more work, or it adds functions or features that the Linux kernel networking developers don't consider worthy of adding.

There may be functions in those separate patches that are implemented in the OpenBSD kernel by default. That merely represents a difference of opinion between the Linux kernel developers and the OpenBSD developers. That difference of opinion doesn't make Linux "incomplete and buggy", just because the Linux networking stack doesn't implement the exact same feature or function set that the OpenBSD one does.



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