Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NetBSD 11.0

blog.netbsd.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 172 posts

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#121

Post by haberman »

bjornnn wrote: post #69
haberman wrote: post #29

I often wonder what the current status is of the BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD). Who uses them, who works on them, what is their motivation for doing so? How do they compare to Linux these days, in terms of size, feature set, security hardening, etc? Is their usage/development happening at a relatively constant level, or is it growing/shrinking?

are you asking these questions sincerely or is this just your passive-aggressive way of saying that netbsd is dead and nobody uses it? and why does everything have to be compared to linux? isn't the whole reason we developed free and open-source operating systems is to have lots of different choices and not just one universal corporate-controlled OS that everyone thinks of as the yardstick by which all other OSes are…

It was a sincere question and I found your comment quite off-putting.

You're talking to someone who spent a month in college installing every free OS I could get my hands on (including the BSDs). I find alternate operating systems interesting, but haven't played with them much lately. I compare other free Unixes to Linux because I use Linux every day and it's what I know.

It's interesting to think of hypothetical scenarios where an alternative to Linux might be more compelling to me for some reason (eg. is OpenBSD objectively more hardened than Linux? Is NetBSD objectively more portable? etc.)

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#122

Post by zenlot »

haberman wrote: post #29

I often wonder what the current status is of the BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD). Who uses them, who works on them, what is their motivation for doing so? How do they compare to Linux these days, in terms of size, feature set, security hardening, etc? Is their usage/development happening at a relatively constant level, or is it growing/shrinking?

[dead]

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#123

Post by dgan »

jaypatelani wrote: post #117
Panino wrote: post #42

From the linked release announcement: > Improvements to the npf(7) firewall, including layer 2 and user/group filtering That's a valuable, useful feature > New MICROVM kernel for x86... it can boot in about 10 ms That could open some doors, nice There are some good hardware improvements too.

Check out https://smolbsd.org/

i really want to use one on my Linode, wondering if is it possible

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#124

Post by LAC-Tech »

haberman wrote: post #29

I often wonder what the current status is of the BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD). Who uses them, who works on them, what is their motivation for doing so? How do they compare to Linux these days, in terms of size, feature set, security hardening, etc? Is their usage/development happening at a relatively constant level, or is it growing/shrinking?

I think I could probably live on them. I am actually seeking a more restricted computer system these days... I really don't need DRM or slop apps or games.

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#125

Post by 2b3a51 »

Narishma wrote: post #108
ranger_danger wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They said Linux distros , not the kernel itself. Many distros have or are about to drop x86 support.

Yes, I think the only somewhat big distro that still has x86 support is Gentoo.

A bit more niche but Slackware (both the 15.0 released version and 'current' development version) have x86 support (i686). Void Linux and antiX Linux also provide i686 isos.

But, yes, we are in the long tail.

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#126

Post by sunshine-o »

SoftTalker wrote: post #86
sunshine-o wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am tempted, how do you deal with the non journalized filesystem? This is the one "modern" comfort that makes me hesitant to try.

I've used OpenBSD for probably 20 years and never had any problem with the filesystem. What is your concern?

I can explain what is my (maybe irrational) fear:

I am working on my desktop or laptop, I get a power cut or the laptop battery run out, when I reboot the filesystem is unrecoverable and I loose 4 hours rebuilding the system and recovering from backup.

So it is not really about loosing recent files but the potential time lost (usually at the worst/busiest moment).

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#127

Post by boomlinde »

haberman wrote: post #29

I often wonder what the current status is of the BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD). Who uses them, who works on them, what is their motivation for doing so? How do they compare to Linux these days, in terms of size, feature set, security hardening, etc? Is their usage/development happening at a relatively constant level, or is it growing/shrinking?

I use stock OpenBSD with nothing else for a web server. Very easy to maintain and configure, very good manuals and very good vulnerability track record. OpenBSD 7.9 was released 1-2 months ago.

I know some people use OPNsense or pfSense for their router and firewall needs, which are both based on FreeBSD.

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#128

Post by bas »

user3939382 wrote: post #74
mattbillenstein wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mainly heard of successes of the networking stack in FreeBSD at Netflix and Whatsapp - but largely, I don't know anywhere else that uses it in production.

PS3 and Nintendo Switch OS use FreeBSD components.

Ditto for PS4 and PS5.

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#129

Post by vladak »

haberman wrote: post #29

I often wonder what the current status is of the BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD). Who uses them, who works on them, what is their motivation for doing so? How do they compare to Linux these days, in terms of size, feature set, security hardening, etc? Is their usage/development happening at a relatively constant level, or is it growing/shrinking?

I've been using OpenBSD on my router/firewall boxes (in various forms, mostly i386/amd64 - Soekris or PC enginers but also mips/octeon - Ubiquiti boxes) for the past 20+ years. Mostly because in that area I do not want any compromises (literally and figuratively) on security. I like the Packet Firewall philosophy and functionality. The fact it is rock solid I take for granted. Another reason is that the system is cleanly designed and simple. Quite easy to reason about with source code in hand.

Re: NetBSD 11.0

#130

Post by Gud »

CodeCompost wrote: post #62
haberman wrote: post #29

I often wonder what the current status is of the BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD). Who uses them, who works on them, what is their motivation for doing so? How do they compare to Linux these days, in terms of size, feature set, security hardening, etc? Is their usage/development happening at a relatively constant level, or is it growing/shrinking?

The current status? If you're considering doing anything serious with Unix, absolutely you should use Linux. No question. Don't waste your time with any BSDs. But ... if you want to teleport back to the 90s and go back to an era before Linux took off on a rocket ship to universal dominance then the BSD are for you. You will find a much more curated experience when people thought that documentation mattered. It is the…

I do my “serious” stuff with FreeBSD and my gaming on Linux.
Post reply on HN