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How is the hardware/driver support for NetBSD in comparison with FreeBSD or Linux? Is it better, worse, or about the same? I'm considering using a Mac Mini G4
by kunai 13y ago
How is the hardware/driver support for NetBSD in comparison with FreeBSD or Linux?
Is it better, worse, or about the same? I'm considering using a Mac Mini G4 as a server, and was wondering whether to put FreeBSD, NetBSD, or Linux on it.
I know all of them will have drivers for the G4, but if I wanted to put any on a newer computer, how would the hardware support be?
- sliverstorm 13y agoTo my knowledge, you can safely assume all BSD variants run behind Linux in terms of driver support for new hardware.
- kev009 13y agoPathologically, older SPARC and SGI MIPS boxes are probably a lot better off on OpenBSD where they are actively developed for and tested. Linux casts a wide net but has a lot of bit rot in the dark corners of it's hardware support.
- octotoad 13y agoNetBSD and OpenBSD have had good PowerPC support for quite some time, whereas FreeBSD's port is relatively new. You'll want the 'macppc' port for any Apple system. Been a while since I've used a PPC, but I'm guessing hardware support under Linux and NetBSD probably wouldn't differ too much these days. I do remember Linux being slightly less fiddly on PPC when it comes to boot loaders.
- 65a 13y agoRun FreeBSD on it...NetBSD on PowerPC essentially requires a dual-boot or Apple_BOOT partition. FreeBSD has a cleaner boot (amongst BSDs, anyway...I do like yaboot).