I work for a hedge fund, which is super secretive and high security environment. Right now, we use a PC running Windows and CuteFTP Pro to transfer files to various other financial companies. We're thinking about automating that.

As it stands right now, an user goes, clicks on a site, connects, and runs a few macro commands, and finally transfers the files.

Can this all be done with scripts in *nix? I was considering Debian since it has a reputation for being the most mature and reliable flavor. However, I'm also thinking about using OpenBSD, which I have no experience with. We're behind a firewall and fairly secure. We've never been compromised before and this machine will definitely be behind the firewall. Therefore, can I do what I want with *nix and is OpenBSD worth trying?

Thanks.

Not only can it be done in Unix but probably more options. Choose your programming language to achieve this.. perl, php.. and so on..

of course that can be done.

whether you should try OpenBSD -- it's a great OS. if you're completely unfamiliar, it will require some patience and willingness to do a lot of reading. fortunately the documentation is good (also note the great docs at freebsd.org), and there's a lot of help available via sites like LQ, bsdforums.org, mailing lists, etc.

good luck

OpenBSD is known as being one of the most secure operating systems around due the the tight restrictions on it's coding standards. I'd love to try it but don't have anything spare to install it on.