3 ms·

I am enjoying this conversation, so thank you (and you're welcome :-) ). > It seemed rushed It was. Virtually everything I write is now. :-( That's life on a

I am enjoying this conversation, so thank you (and you're welcome :-) ). > It seemed rushed It was. Virtually everything I write is now. :-( That's life on a website as opposed to in print. But C21 life is generally rushed, I find. > But who is putting NetBSD on their main machine without doing any reading or thinking Ahh, now, there is an important thing. I wasn't "on my main machine". I was not proposing it would be. I put it in a VM. I think that is how most techies try out new OSes these days. Especially FOSS OSes. Try before you buy. Give it a test drive, no cost, no commitment. And in that context, yes, I do feel it's something one might do casually, without a lot of research, on the spur of the moment, for example at 1AM after one's partner has gone to bed or something. > Nothing about the project or it's goals either. Well, I tried to point out in the closing paragraphs why one might want a modern-but-minimal OS on vintage hardware. I cited the example of keeping an old version of Mac OS X around on a PowerMac running Classic MacOS: so one can download stuff from the internet, transfer stuff to/from USB keys or other media the old OS might not understand, and so on. As a comparison: there was a new release of Classic AmigaOS just last year or so: https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/news/1-latest-news/290-amigaos-42-for-all-classic-amigas-released-and-available https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/news/1-late... After a ~30 year gap. AFAIK that release comes with no web browser, no TCP/IP, no networking at all. 680x0 Amigas don't come with USB either, and many don't have CD drives as standard. What I was getting at with that was: on such a machine, having NetBSD around as well, so you can grab stuff off the Internet, or a modern optical disk, could be handy. That was me trying to justify the relevance of the project and its goals. Apparently not clearly enough. :-(

nortonham 4y ago
I would say a rushed review isn't fair, but I don't write OS reviews for a living. >That was me trying to justify the relevance of the project and its goals. Apparently not clearly enough. :-( That isn't the same as the project's stated goals, although it does say something about why it might useful to someone. In that sense it's fair enough. >And in that context, yes, I do feel it's something one might do casually, without a lot of research, on the spur of the moment, for example at 1AM after one's partner has gone to bed or something. Ok, fair enough. Having done that, I eventually was able to feel comfortable in NetBSD, especially in a VM, with what was available to me: essentially the official docs and google. I was able to get the OS up and running, and make it feel usable for me.

nortonham 4y ago

I would say a rushed review isn't fair, but I don't write OS reviews for a living. >That was me trying to justify the relevance of the project and its goals. Apparently not clearly enough. :-( That isn't the same as the project's stated goals, although it does say something about why it might useful to someone. In that sense it's fair enough. >And in that context, yes, I do feel it's something one might do casually, without a lot of research, on the spur of the moment, for example at 1AM after one's partner has gone to bed or something. Ok, fair enough. Having done that, I eventually was able to feel comfortable in NetBSD, especially in a VM, with what was available to me: essentially the official docs and google. I was able to get the OS up and running, and make it feel usable for me.