I wonder if the popularity of NetBSD for research has to do with how easy it is to compile a version of NetBSD with favorable licenses. You can opt to build it

I wonder if the popularity of NetBSD for research has to do with how easy it is to compile a version of NetBSD with favorable licenses. You can opt to build it yourself and exclude anything that is not 2-clause BSD licensed, as some drivers and such are if I recall correctly.