
NetBSD Internals - jayp1418
https://www.netbsd.org/docs/internals/en/index.html
======
bch
NetBSD is such a joy to work with, I’ve stuck with it for nigh 18 years
(NetBSD 1.6). I’ve used FreeBSD and Linux fairly extensively (esp Linux at
$work, of course), and dabbled with DragonFly and Open BSDs, but the
fit/finish of NetBSD keeps me coming back.

The linked document is fairly old. There seems to be a _lot_ of churn in the
tree lately (last 6(?) months; seems to have slowed last few weeks),
especially by ad@ (Andrew Doran). Browse the mailing list[0] to see what’s
going on in -current. It’s extensive enough (read: _occasionally unstable_ )
that I’ve moved from running -current as my daily-driver (which was possible
for an amazingly long time) to tracking 9-release.

If anybody is interested in a well put together *nix, esp a BSD, NetBSD[1]
deserves attention.

[0] [https://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-kern/](https://mail-
index.netbsd.org/tech-kern/)

[1] [https://NetBSD.org/](https://NetBSD.org/)

~~~
dilippkumar
I’ve been running OpenBSD as my daily driver for the past few months and I
like it.

Turning my laptop into a little fortress appealed to the same part of me that
loved the Tesla Cybertruck for being built like a tank.

How does NetBSD compare with OpenBSD? What would be the strongest reason for
me to switch over?

~~~
bch
If you like Open, I wouldn’t switch; Keep enjoying it.

Seems to me Net and Open are remarkably similar- relatively simple
implementations with an eye to traditional Unix and standards. OpenBSD is more
conservative, in the name of security, at the cost of “neat things”. Seems to
me they eschewed MP kernels for ages on that basis, and won’t ever have (eg)
PAM for authentication. Make of it what you will. In the meantime, enjoy
OpenBSD!

~~~
non-entity
> Seems to me Net and Open are remarkably similar- relatively simple
> implementations with an eye to traditional Unix and standards.

Well OpenBSD was originally forked from NetBSD and iirc, NetBSD was the first
of the "modern" BSD's forked from 386BSD.

~~~
bch
You’re right on both counts. But to throw a wrinkle in this, DragonFlyBSD was
forked from FreeBSD 4 more recently than Open from Net, and is quite a
remarkably different beast; it doesn’t necessarily follow they need to be
remarkably similar.

------
iJohnDoe
I cut my teeth on NetBSD and was the OS I learned *NIX on. I deployed many
production systems using NetBSD.

A great OS that is very under appreciated, very under represented, and very
under respected.

~~~
Snawoot
Don't get me wrong, but I can't see why anyone should use something except
mainstream OS like Linux? Taking into account that fact what OS is no interest
for people itself, it's just a platform for applications.

~~~
nix23
>but I can't see why anyone should use something except mainstream OS like
Linux?

Everyone said the same in the 90's...but about Windows.

>Taking into account that fact what OS is no interest for people itself

True but for the dev's and admin's its pretty much the most important thing to
have a good base.

~~~
Snawoot
I think most dev's don't care about OS or will stick with Linux as it's most
widely supported choice. Speaking of sysadmins, I don't see much job openings
for such role, it's more like everyone is DevOps now, running some sort of
Linux containers.

~~~
nix23
>dev's don't care about OS

Maybe ask Netflix or Whatsapp (before FB) why the chose FreeBSD?

>sysadmins, I don't see much job openings

That is the HR 'coolness' Factor, often they don't even know what a DevOp is
but i find alone in Switzerland 304 alone on one platform:

[https://www.jobs.ch/de/stellenangebote/informatik-
telekommun...](https://www.jobs.ch/de/stellenangebote/informatik-
telekommunikation/system-administration/)

And 668 devop's:

[https://www.jobs.ch/de/stellenangebote/?term=devop](https://www.jobs.ch/de/stellenangebote/?term=devop)

But if you read the description of the jobs its mostly pure System-
administration with a grain of Jenkins and Orchestration...as if that's not
pure Administration.

------
sloshnmosh
I have tried using various BSD OS’s but they always seemed to require a lot
more work if you wanted a desktop GUI.

Am I correct in thinking that BSD is meant to be used “headless” for security
reasons?

~~~
nix23
30 minutes is not much for freebsd, otherwise use something like
[http://ghostbsd.org/](http://ghostbsd.org/) or
[https://nomadbsd.org/](https://nomadbsd.org/) but you learn much more with
net- open- freebsd

