4 ms·

NetBSD turns 20

101 points by dallagi 14y ago

superflit 14y ago
Great OS and Great Team. If you need an OS that will not need to be upgraded frequently and secure this is the one.
- hp50g 14y ago
  Definitely. I had a dialup SLIP server running on NetBSD on an old Compaq desktop for nearly 10 years and it didn't get a single update. It died when the case filled up with dust to the point the CPU fan stopped going round and it blew up.
- nnq 14y ago
  How would it compare to OpenBSD of FreeBSD? Both beat Linuxes at "stability" and security, but there seems to be easier to find docs about them and software guaranteed to work on them. Why would I learn/use it besides for the fun of hacking on it and the support for exotic architectures?
loeg 14y ago
"NetBSD turns 20, still lives with parents."
asb 14y ago
Hopefully this isn't considered too much of a hijack, but while NetBSD on topic I'd really like to recommend taking a look at their support for "rump kernels". Basically, you can compile and use large swathes on NetBSD as a library even on non-NetBSD systems. You can use this to, for instance use the NetBSD filesystem implementations to read an unmounted disk image. Or run Firefox using the NetBSD TCP/IP stack. http://www.netbsd.org/docs/rump/sptut.html http://www.netbsd.org/docs/rump/sptut.html https://github.com/anttikantee/buildrump.sh https://github.com/anttikantee/buildrump.sh
- pifflesnort 14y ago
  Wow. That's a totally awesome feature I was not aware of. There are tons of use-cases for being able to do things like run a real TCP/IP stack in userspace. Tools such a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slirp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slirp had to hack the BSD networking stack considerably to run as a userspace process, and is used to power networking in emulators, mobile phone tethering, etc.
- daemon13 14y ago
  > "rump kernels" > compile and use large swathes Can someone elaborate in plain speak?
gamache 14y ago
Happy birthday, NetBSD! My tool of choice for my first ten years of Unix. While Linux was scrambling from kernel update to kernel update, NetBSD felt pro on whatever scrounged hunk o' silicon I had powered up at the time. Congratulations on two decades of excellence. Here's looking at a few more!

NetBSD turns 20

101 points by dallagi 14y ago

superflit 14y ago

Great OS and Great Team. If you need an OS that will not need to be upgraded frequently and secure this is the one.

hp50g 14y ago
Definitely. I had a dialup SLIP server running on NetBSD on an old Compaq desktop for nearly 10 years and it didn't get a single update. It died when the case filled up with dust to the point the CPU fan stopped going round and it blew up.
nnq 14y ago
How would it compare to OpenBSD of FreeBSD? Both beat Linuxes at "stability" and security, but there seems to be easier to find docs about them and software guaranteed to work on them. Why would I learn/use it besides for the fun of hacking on it and the support for exotic architectures?

loeg 14y ago

"NetBSD turns 20, still lives with parents."

asb 14y ago

Hopefully this isn't considered too much of a hijack, but while NetBSD on topic I'd really like to recommend taking a look at their support for "rump kernels". Basically, you can compile and use large swathes on NetBSD as a library even on non-NetBSD systems. You can use this to, for instance use the NetBSD filesystem implementations to read an unmounted disk image. Or run Firefox using the NetBSD TCP/IP stack. http://www.netbsd.org/docs/rump/sptut.html http://www.netbsd.org/docs/rump/sptut.html https://github.com/anttikantee/buildrump.sh https://github.com/anttikantee/buildrump.sh

pifflesnort 14y ago
Wow. That's a totally awesome feature I was not aware of. There are tons of use-cases for being able to do things like run a real TCP/IP stack in userspace. Tools such a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slirp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slirp had to hack the BSD networking stack considerably to run as a userspace process, and is used to power networking in emulators, mobile phone tethering, etc.
daemon13 14y ago
> "rump kernels" > compile and use large swathes Can someone elaborate in plain speak?

gamache 14y ago

Happy birthday, NetBSD! My tool of choice for my first ten years of Unix. While Linux was scrambling from kernel update to kernel update, NetBSD felt pro on whatever scrounged hunk o' silicon I had powered up at the time. Congratulations on two decades of excellence. Here's looking at a few more!