7 ms·

NetBSD 10: Thirty Years, Still Going Strong

76 points by jaypatelani 3y ago

Gratuity1901 3y ago
There was some work on wine in NetBSD earlier, has that panned out? as in is that usable yet?
- treadmill 3y ago
  https://wiki.netbsd.org/projects/project/wine_amd64/ https://wiki.netbsd.org/projects/project/wine_amd64/ > Completed in 2019 https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/emulators/wine/index.html https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/emulators/w... Looks like it is usable.
binkHN 3y ago
Related slides are at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZzaW9eI4wmMRGOnJ1uo-kGk5b_UvIOuU9Zgur4au_8s/edit?usp=drivesdk https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZzaW9eI4wmMRGOnJ1uo-....
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] An earlier link to the event talk page https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39220474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39220474
- jaypatelani 3y ago
  Thanks
Annatar 3y ago
[dead]
hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago
I get the feeling I should really take the plunge and start using one of the BSDs, at least as a web server or something. I rarely see them mentioned in job postings compared to Linux, but everything I hear about them as servers sounds so much less painful. Turn as to whether Free vs Open vs Net makes the most sense. My very uncertain guess is Free is the easiest to get used to, and that you can't really go too wrong with any of them without a specialized use case.
- mlyle 3y ago
  > everything I hear about them as servers sounds so much less painful. It's a different kind of pain. The entire "distribution" is cohesive and clean in a way that no Linux distribution manages. A lot of duplication of effort and ugliness is avoided. But everyone develops for Linux, and you run into places where things don't work. And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end.
  - jjav 3y ago
    > And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end. There are presentation about how Netflix uses BSD for video delivery for its performance, so it can't be that bad.
    - xyproto 3y ago
      Unless Netflix compares the performance with Linux and publishes the results, it's hard to know if it's a great idea or just based on the whims of the most senior sysadmins.
      - belgesel 3y ago
        IIRC the main reason to use FreeBSD instead of Linux was BSD being a lot simpler and have a lot more room to optimize their specific use case.
    - King1st 3y ago
      BSD is really do for companies that want to keep their code closed, but not start from scratch. I see this as a large reason why Netflix uses them and Sony uses BSD on playstations.
  - roydivision 3y ago
    > And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end. The Playstation System software (Orbis OS) is a fork of FreeBSD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_system_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_system_software I'd guess performance was pretty high on Sony's list of priorities.
flomo 3y ago
This is the first time I've seen the NetBSD announcement. "Escape from the political wars" is an interesting bit because it sounded like 386BSD completely devolved into a flamewar, and this confirms that it was more political than technological. Linus T wrote a book called "Just For Fun", and idk but maybe fun-factor maybe won out.
csdvrx 3y ago
With NetBSD, I've discovered an OS that gives me joy in a way that's hard to describe: NetBSD is neat, works everywhere, and its users are friendly. It's not as well known as FreeBSD (or Linux) but yet you've got everything in a smaller community that's well organized and big enough that you can, share, and learn with them. I like that pace :) I hope I will be able to offer minimal contributions to the kernel: for now, my project is adding an init_flag to pass the kernel to be loaded,and the init run too, like --init-args do similar on FreeBSD or Linux, My other project is about boot time metrics: https://old.reddit.com/r/NetBSD/comments/1agmfja/collecting_and_measuring_boot_times/ https://old.reddit.com/r/NetBSD/comments/1agmfja/collecting_... My other small project is for metering boot: I'ts just small sqlite database that'll automatically extract tslog boot info to better track regressions, improvements etc: with a kernel that now boots in 60 ms or less, you want very accurate numbers!

76 points by jaypatelani 3y ago

Gratuity1901 3y ago

There was some work on wine in NetBSD earlier, has that panned out? as in is that usable yet?

treadmill 3y ago
https://wiki.netbsd.org/projects/project/wine_amd64/ https://wiki.netbsd.org/projects/project/wine_amd64/ > Completed in 2019 https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/emulators/wine/index.html https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/emulators/w... Looks like it is usable.

binkHN 3y ago

Related slides are at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZzaW9eI4wmMRGOnJ1uo-kGk5b_UvIOuU9Zgur4au_8s/edit?usp=drivesdk https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZzaW9eI4wmMRGOnJ1uo-....

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] An earlier link to the event talk page https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39220474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39220474

jaypatelani 3y ago
Thanks

Annatar 3y ago

[dead]

hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago

I get the feeling I should really take the plunge and start using one of the BSDs, at least as a web server or something. I rarely see them mentioned in job postings compared to Linux, but everything I hear about them as servers sounds so much less painful. Turn as to whether Free vs Open vs Net makes the most sense. My very uncertain guess is Free is the easiest to get used to, and that you can't really go too wrong with any of them without a specialized use case.

mlyle 3y ago
> everything I hear about them as servers sounds so much less painful. It's a different kind of pain. The entire "distribution" is cohesive and clean in a way that no Linux distribution manages. A lot of duplication of effort and ugliness is avoided. But everyone develops for Linux, and you run into places where things don't work. And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end.
- jjav 3y ago
  > And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end. There are presentation about how Netflix uses BSD for video delivery for its performance, so it can't be that bad.
  - xyproto 3y ago
    Unless Netflix compares the performance with Linux and publishes the results, it's hard to know if it's a great idea or just based on the whims of the most senior sysadmins.
    - belgesel 3y ago
      IIRC the main reason to use FreeBSD instead of Linux was BSD being a lot simpler and have a lot more room to optimize their specific use case.
  - King1st 3y ago
    BSD is really do for companies that want to keep their code closed, but not start from scratch. I see this as a large reason why Netflix uses them and Sony uses BSD on playstations.
- roydivision 3y ago
  > And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end. The Playstation System software (Orbis OS) is a fork of FreeBSD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_system_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_system_software I'd guess performance was pretty high on Sony's list of priorities.

flomo 3y ago

This is the first time I've seen the NetBSD announcement. "Escape from the political wars" is an interesting bit because it sounded like 386BSD completely devolved into a flamewar, and this confirms that it was more political than technological. Linus T wrote a book called "Just For Fun", and idk but maybe fun-factor maybe won out.

csdvrx 3y ago

With NetBSD, I've discovered an OS that gives me joy in a way that's hard to describe: NetBSD is neat, works everywhere, and its users are friendly. It's not as well known as FreeBSD (or Linux) but yet you've got everything in a smaller community that's well organized and big enough that you can, share, and learn with them. I like that pace :) I hope I will be able to offer minimal contributions to the kernel: for now, my project is adding an init_flag to pass the kernel to be loaded,and the init run too, like --init-args do similar on FreeBSD or Linux, My other project is about boot time metrics: https://old.reddit.com/r/NetBSD/comments/1agmfja/collecting_and_measuring_boot_times/ https://old.reddit.com/r/NetBSD/comments/1agmfja/collecting_... My other small project is for metering boot: I'ts just small sqlite database that'll automatically extract tslog boot info to better track regressions, improvements etc: with a kernel that now boots in 60 ms or less, you want very accurate numbers!