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Expanding Small NetBSD Systems

BSD Forums writes "Anyone who has worked with any BSD knows that the base operating system doesn't include many programs that most people use in day-to-day work. Unless you only need vi and ssh, you must install additional software to make your palmtop useful and comfortable. OnLamp's Michael Lucas says that if you're running a palmtop -- or, indeed, any sort of small hardware with NetBSD installed -- you'll probably want to expand the system."

37 comments

  1. The real problem with BSD by Michael's+a+Jerk! · · Score: -1

    If the latest revalations regarding IBM's possible leakage of copyrighted Unix code into Linux have proven anything, it is that using any derivative of this outdated operating system is a legal disaster waiting to happen. Not only is Linux licensed under the anti-business GNU General Public License, but it turns out that commercial code may have been unlawfully added, making it illegal to use or distribute.

    This should suprise no one familiar with the history of Unix. The earliest version was an unlicensed ripoff of the proprietary Multics operating system, and was partly responsible for destroying the market for this pioneering operating system. The Berkeley Shareware Distribution (BSD) was sued by AT&T in the early 1990s, for openly distributing copyrighted code in its public-domain source releases. As if this wasn't enough, it turned out that AT&T had also broken the license on code they had taken from BSD, leaving both sides forced to essentially accept the other's illegal behavior in order to avoid stiffer penalties.

    Reputable software companies such as Microsoft, though initially interested in Unix, have learned to steer clear of the mess of standards, licenses, and conflicting intellectual property rights that Unix forms. Microsoft Windows XP [microsoft.com] is the latest release of Microsoft's flagship version of Windows, built from the ground up in the early 1990s based on the most modern concepts in operating systems, without any legacy baggage from the 1970s. And it is available essentially for free, preloaded on hardware from all major manufacturers. There is really no reason to use anything else, unless you need a truly high-performance computing system such as IBM's proprietary OS/390 or HP's OpenVMS.

    --

    I'm not Seth.

    1. Re:The real problem with BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Reputable software companies such as Microsoft, though initially interested in Unix, have learned to steer clear of the mess of standards, licenses, and conflicting intellectual property rights that Unix forms.

      should read:

      Reputable software companies , have learned to steer clear of the mess of standards, licenses, and conflicting intellectual property rights.

  2. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Fact: *BSD is dying

    It is common knowledge that *BSD is dying, that ever hapless *BSD is mired in an irrecoverable and mortifying tangle of fatal trouble. It is perhaps anybody's guess as to which *BSD is the worst off of an admittedly suffering *BSD community. The numbers continue to decline for *BSD but FreeBSD may be hurting the most. Look at the numbers. The loss of user base for FreeBSD continues in a head spinning downward spiral.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of BSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major marketing surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among hobbyist dilettante dabblers. In truth, for all practical purposes *BSD is already dead. It is a dead man walking.

    Fact: *BSD is dying

    1. Re:*BSD is dying by profet · · Score: 0, Redundant

      You forgot to account for Mac OS X users...

      Is OS X dying? I think not...

  3. *BSD Sux0rs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    In a startling turn of events today, a previously little-known fact came into the public eye: "*BSD Sux0rs". This came as a complete surprise to the BUWLA, or BSD Users With Large Assholes, as they previously thought that *BSD 0wned.

    "You see, even though I have never contributed code to any BSD project, I thought it was my duty to be a big asshole to others which don't use the OS I do, because it just 0wnz.", said one FreeBSD user. "Now that I know it sux0rs, though, I have to go find something else to be an asshole about."

    One notorious OpenBSD fanatic known as WideOpen, told reporters, "I have to kill myself. This isn't how it was supposed to happen. My BSD has always been the best, and shouting that opinion in other people's faces at every chance I got has been my only hobby. It was all I ever did. It was what got me out of bed in the morning. Now I have to die. I will jam my bedpost up my ass until I hit my brain. It is the only way to go: BSD style."

    In the volatile world of operating systems anything can happen. "At least we don't sux0r as much as Windows users", BigAzz, a relatively well-known NetBSD user said. "Screaming things in people's faces is my calling. Now I need to scream that BSD sux0rs. What a sad world. At least I won't kill myself like those uber-asshole OpenBSD guys. They are just way over the top. Or were, at least."

    Nobody knows for sure what the future holds for the state of operating systems, but with Netcraft confirming the sux0r status, *BSD users all over the world will have to stick something else up their asses from now on or risk looking even more gay than they used to.

  4. Old Ike by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    When I think of dirty old men, I think of Ike Thomas and when I think about Ike I get a hard-on that won't quit.

    Sixty years ago, I worked in what was once my Grandfather's Greenhouses. Gramps had died a year earlier and Grandma, now in her seventies had been forced to sell to the competition. I got a job with the new owners and mostly worked the range by myself. That summer, they hired a man to help me get the benches ready for the fall planting.

    Ike always looked like he was three days from a shave and his whiskers were dirty white, shaded by the brim of his battered felt fedora.

    He did not chew tobacco but the corners of his mouth turned down in a way that, at any moment, I expected a trickle of thin, brown juice to creep down his chin. His bushy, brown eyebrows shaded pale, gray eyes.

    The old-timer extended his hand, lifted his leg like a dog about to mark a bush and let go the loudest fart I ever heard. The old fellow then winked at me, "Ike Thomas is the name and playing pecker's my game."

    I thought he said, "Checkers." I was nineteen, green as grass. I said, "I was never much good at that game."

    "Now me," said Ike, "I just love jumping men . . ."

    "I'll bet you do."

    ". . . and grabbing on to their peckers," said Ike.

    "I though we were talking about . . ."

    "You like jumping old men's peckers?"

    I shook my head.

    "I reckon we'll have to remedy that." Ike lifted his right leg and let go another tremendous fart. "He said, "We best be getting to work."

    That summer of 1941 was a more innocent time. I learned most of the sex I knew from those little eight pager cartoon booklets of comic-page characters going at it. Young men read them in the privacy of an outside john, played with themselves, by themselves and didn't brag about it. Sometimes, we got off with a trusted friend and helped each other out.

    Under the greenhouse glass, the temperature sometimes climbed over the hundred degree mark. I had worked stripped to the waist since April and was as brown as a berry. On only his second day on the job and in the middle of August, Ike wore old fashioned overalls. Those and socks in his high-top work shoes was every stitch he wore. When he bent forward, the bib front billowed out and I could see the white curly hairs on his chest and belly.

    "Me? I just love to eat pussy!" Ike licked his lips from corner to corner then sticking his tongue out far enough that the tip could touch the end of his nose. He said, A man's not a man till he knows first hand, the flavor of a lady's pussy."

    "People do that?"

    He winked. "Of course the taste of a hard cock ain't to be sneezed at neither. Now you answer me, yes or no. Does a man's cock taste salty or not?"

    "I never . . ."

    "Well, old Ike's willing to let you find out."

    "No way."

    "Just teasing," said Ike. "But don't give me no sass or I'll show you my ass." He winked. "Might show it to you anyway, if you was to ask."

    "Why would I do that?"

    "Curiosity, maybe. I'm guessing you never had a good piece of man ass."

    "I'm no queer."

    "Now don't be getting judgmental. Enjoying what's at hand ain't being queer. It's taking pleasure where you find it with anybody willing." Ike slipped a hand into the side slit of his overalls and I could tell he was fondling and straightening out his cock. "Now I admit I got me a hole that satisfied a few guys."

    I swallowed, hard.

    Ike winked. "Care to be asshole buddies?"

    ***

    We worked steadily until noon. Ike drew a worn pocket watch from the bib pocket of his loose overalls and croaked, "Bean time. But first its time to reel out our limber hoses and make with the golden arches before lunch."

    I followed Ike to the end of the greenhouse where he stopped at the outside wall of the potting shed. He opened his fly, fished inside, and finger-hooked a soft white penis with a pouting foreskin puckered half an inch past the hidden head.

  5. New addition to BSD Family Tree ! ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Newborn found in Wal-Mart toilet

    Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA)

    Police are investigating and are not saying if the mother will face criminal charges. Story By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER

    HAZLE TWP. - Prosecutors have not yet decided if charges will be filed against a 20-year-old woman who gave birth to an infant found dead in a toilet in the Wal-Mart Super Center restroom Thursday night.

    The woman, a Wal-Mart employee, was discovered inside the restroom in active labor. She was transported to Hazleton General Hospital, where she gave birth to a second infant who survived, said state police in Hazleton.

    The first infant, a female at 32 to 34 weeks gestation, was pronounced dead at 11:30 p.m. at the hospital. The second infant, also a female, was born at the hospital, then transferred to Lehigh Valley Medical Center.

    Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas said Coroner George Hudock performed an autopsy Friday afternoon and determined the dead infant was born alive. But Lupas said Hudock needs to perform further analysis of the infant's organs and tissue to determine the cause and manner of death, which will determine if charges should be filed.

    The identity of the woman is being withheld pending the determination on charges, Lupas said. He said she remained hospitalized Friday. He said Luzerne County Children and Youth Services had been called into the case, but he did not know if they had taken charge of the surviving infant.

    Lupas said co-workers and customers discovered the woman. Police believe she gave birth to the first infant between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. He said investigators are still trying to pinpoint the time more precisely and determine whether the woman told anyone she was in labor.

    "It's obviously a strange and unusual occurrence. We're trying to get to the bottom of it," he said.

    Twins, whether fraternal or paternal, are in separate amniotic sacs within the mother. In normal vaginal births twins are usually born within five to 20 minutes of each other, but the time frame can stretch to several hours, said a obstetrics nurse with Wyoming Valley Health Care System.

    Lupas said state police and county detectives are continuing to interview employees and customers. Anyone who was in the store, located off the Airport Beltway, or the restroom between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. is asked to call state police at 459-3890.

    Wal-Mart corporate spokeswoman Sharon Weber said the company would not release any information about the incident or the employee involved. "We really don't know what happened, and we're just cooperating anyway we can. It's really just a sad situation."

    [BSD is dying.]

  6. YHBT. YHL.. HAND. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if the BSD crowd would just SHUT UP when the same obvious trolls get posted every time, the trolls would slowly die out due to lack of attention.

    1. Re:YHBT. YHL.. HAND. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We tried that - it didn't work - so now we just mock them.

    2. Re:YHBT. YHL.. HAND. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, no you didnt.

      All it takes is one stupid moron to reply to a troll and it gives the troll poster exactly what he wants - frustration from BSD users.

    3. Re:YHBT. YHL.. HAND. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple user ARE morons, what do you want ?

    4. Re:YHBT. YHL.. HAND. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mispelled Mormans.

  7. Er... by inertia187 · · Score: 1

    What ever happened to NetBSD by Wasabi?

    --
    A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
    1. Re:Er... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1
      Video professor says:

      this Bitch iS Dead
  8. It died - sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    End of the Week Troll:

    *BSD is dying...

  9. Please help out a newbie with some answers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    1. You can not play games on it.
    2. It cannot be used by my grandma.
    3. It lacks a GUI of any note.
    4. There is no support available for it.
    5. It is an assortment of fragmented OSes.
    6. It cannot be run on the x86 platform.
    7. You have to compile everything and know C.
    8. Support for the latest hardware is always poor.
    9. It is incompatiable with GNU/Linux.
    10.It is dying.

    1. Re:Please help out a newbie with some answers? by cerskine · · Score: -1
      1. You can not play games on it.
      True, so true. That's because the only primitives supported by its graphics API are green text and a flashing cursor. There have been ASCII mode games released, but come on, this is 2003!
      2. It cannot be used by my grandma.
      Again, true. It's such a pain to set up - you have hand-edit so many files in a text editor, and spent days and days fiddling around. Then you'll think it's working for a while until your realise you can't connect to the Internet... more fiddling... you get the picture: it's not a pretty one.
      3. It lacks a GUI of any note.
      Last time I used it (another failed attempt last month), it lacked any GUI at all. And I know what I'm doing - I'm an IT admin for a blue chip company.
      4. There is no support available for it.
      Painfully true. Grandma's shit out of luck again.
      5. It is an assortment of fragmented OSes.
      Yep, and that unfortunately manifests itself in its instability and internal inconsistency. You might finally work out how to use one flavor, only to find that the command line options on another flavor differ subtly and confusingly. Best just to leave it alone.
      6. It cannot be run on the x86 platform.
      Again, true. You need an Alpha, Transmeta, or StrongARM.
      7. You have to compile everything and know C.
      This is actually one of my pet hates - why can't they just ship pre-built binaries that work. The worst thing about this is that the C compiler itself actually needs to be compiled manually.
      8. Support for the latest hardware is always poor.
      Poor? How about non-existent? It can barely read my fucking hard drive - seems to be running in some sort of safety or compatibility mode, because it's taken about 20 minutes so far just to copy an 18 meg file. Even emacs lite is struggling to keep up with my typing rate, and I'm only 120 wpm.
      9. It is incompatiable with GNU/Linux.
      Yes, that's true. It's a little island unto itself. OK, it's not a proprietary lock-in, but it may as well be.
      10.It is dying.
      Small wonder.
    2. Re:Please help out a newbie with some answers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny, I like it :)

    3. Re:Please help out a newbie with some answers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny - like a bullet to the head.

    4. Re:Please help out a newbie with some answers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do people still actually USE FreeBSD? Wasn't it rendered obsolete by Linux YEARS ago?

    5. Re:Please help out a newbie with some answers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Do people still actually USE FreeBSD? Wasn't it rendered obsolete by Linux YEARS ago?

      NetCraft confirms: *Linux is dying. FreeBSD market share continues to rise while *Linux goes into the toilet like a baby at Wal-Mart. Linus Torvalds, an anagram of "Anus ..." something or other, says that he hacked together Linux based on gay porn magazines. No small wonder that Linux is known as Anux and its users worship a fat gay penguin doll which they frequently grease and shove up their asses.

  10. 2a42 5344 2069 7320 6479 696e 67 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

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    0000010: 6163 743a 202a 4253 4420 6973 2064 7969 act: *BSD is dyi
    0000020: 6e67 0a0a 4974 2069 7320 636f 6d6d 6f6e ng..It is common
    0000030: 206b 6e6f 776c 6564 6765 2074 6861 7420 knowledge that
    0000040: 2a42 5344 2069 7320 6479 696e 672c 2074 *BSD is dying, t
    0000050: 6861 7420 6576 6572 2068 6170 6c65 7373 hat ever hapless
    0000060: 202a 4253 4420 6973 206d 6972 6564 2069 *BSD is mired i
    0000070: 6e20 616e 2069 7272 6563 6f76 6572 6162 n an irrecoverab
    0000080: 6c65 2061 6e64 206d 6f72 7469 6679 696e le and mortifyin
    0000090: 6720 7461 6e67 6c65 206f 6620 6661 7461 g tangle of fata
    00000a0: 6c20 7472 6f75 626c 652e 2049 7420 6973 l trouble. It is
    00000b0: 2070 6572 6861 7073 2061 6e79 626f 6479 perhaps anybody
    00000c0: 2773 2067 7565 7373 2061 7320 746f 2077 's guess as to w
    00000d0: 6869 6368 202a 4253 4420 6973 2074 6865 hich *BSD is the
    00000e0: 2077 6f72 7374 206f 6666 206f 6620 616e worst off of an
    00000f0: 2061 646d 6974 7465 646c 7920 7375 6666 admittedly suff
    0000100: 6572 696e 6720 2a42 5344 2063 6f6d 6d75 ering *BSD commu
    0000110: 6e69 7479 2e20 5468 6520 6e75 6d62 6572 nity. The number
    0000120: 7320 636f 6e74 696e 7565 2074 6f20 6465 s continue to de
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    0000140: 7574 2046 7265 6542 5344 206d 6179 2062 ut FreeBSD may b
    0000150: 6520 6875 7274 696e 6720 7468 6520 6d6f e hurting the mo
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    00001e0: 6174 6573 2074 6861 7420 7468 6572 6520 ates that there
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  11. YHBT. YHL. HAND. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    1. Re:YHBT. YHL. HAND. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Face facts, junior, *BSD is dying

  12. The *BSD Wailing Song by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The *BSD Wailing Song

    What's left for me to see
    In my ship I sailed so far
    What can the answer be
    Don't know what the questions are.
    And after all I've done
    Still I cannot feel the sun
    Tell me save me
    In the end our lost souls must repent.
    I must know it is for certain
    Can it be the final curtain
    As long as the wind will blow
    I'll be searching high and low.
    Who knows what's really true
    They say the end is so near
    Why are we all so cruel
    We just fill ourselves with fear.
    And heaven and hell will turn
    All that we love shall burn
    Hear me trust me
    In the end our lost sould must repent.
    I must know it is for certain
    Can it be the final curtain
    As long as the wind will blow
    I'll be searching high and low
    Final curtain
    Final curtain

  13. FACT: *BSD USERS ARE FAGGOTS ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    This just in, homosexuality among *BSD users has skyrocketed. The cause has yet to be determined, however most sources indicate that it has something to do with *BSD users comforting each other in an strictly unusual way due to something strictly unusual, to be quite a frank about it, gay sex. On Monday *BSD was giving a sad prognosis, it is dying. An operating system dying you may be asking yourself? Your probably thinking how can an operating system like *BSD be living in the first place? Well, for that we will go to our market share expert Bruce "Netcraft" Petterson.

    Bruce states that an operating system is considered dying when it's marketshare has decreased rapidly, like *BSD, another OS that shares the same pattern is BeOS. Following the course that BeOS took well I think it's fair to say Nothing short of a miracle can save *BSD.

    *BSD probably won't have much longer to live. When news broke out, all hell broke loose. Jimmy an avid *BSD user had this to say:

    "When I heard this news I was utterly devastated, so I went to my friend Darl, who is also a *BSD user. He didn't yet know of the unfortunate, and he didn't take it well. He broke down in tears, this is the second blow to him in a week, he found out that he contracted AIDS from a black prostitute on the street one lonely night. I said to Darl, well you know something *BSD is dying well I'm going with it, I pulled down my pants and bent over, Darl took care of the rest. I don't know if I have yet to get AIDS, but we have gay anal sex everyday, without any lubricant for maximum ripage. The *BSD mailing list I joined reports the same thing happening among the other *BSD users. We are all planning on having one massive gay orgy on Saturday, so if you want to go out and be with *BSD up in heaven, come join us."

    Similar events such as Jimmy's have been seen popping up all over the U.S. and the rest of the world. It should also be noted that when this news had been release, Catholic Priests such as Father Randy "Pudge" O'Day have installed *BSD along side OS X on his Mac. He told our reporters this:

    "I knew Apple Computers has a reputation for being the "Gay Computer", but I had no idea that Apple went to such great lengths to make sure OS X itself was totally queer, I'm glad they chose a *BSD core for OS X."

    Well there you have it, *BSD because of its impending demise has turned it's users into homosexuals. On a related note, Apple computer sales are up 500%.

    FACT: *BSD users are FAGGOTS!



  14. Nice theory, but doesn't work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its too bad /. doesn't keep EVERYTHING in the archives. Back 6 months ago, the 'BSD is dying' links went unanswered for about 2 months. Yet the 2+ year old reposting of the same text kept happening. So no. Ignoring the posts doesn't make 'em go away.

    Filtering on the SAME damn text is something /. management can do something about. Yet, they have not. /. management can do something to block the SAME trolling text, if they want.

    1. Re:Nice theory, but doesn't work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      What I Know About BSD
      this Bitch iS Dead
  15. I'll be darned! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Bsd is really dead!

  16. God damn this BSD section is overrun by trolls! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    At the moment there are only 2 comments out of 29 that have a rating 1 or better.

    Sweet Jesus.

    We don't need Netcraft to tell us that:

    *BSD is dying

  17. Seems pretty basic by e5z8652 · · Score: 1

    OK, so the article points out that there are additional ports & packages available for NetBSD that are not in the base install, and if you want your handheld (!) to be an NFS server you should add that port.

    I guess I'm missing the news value here.

    --

    null sig

    1. Re:Seems pretty basic by ChristTrekker · · Score: 1

      Maybe it's basic to you. It might be in the "whoa, cool" realm for someone else. I'm glad Slashdot caters to a large spectrum of geeks. I think the fact that you added "(!)" to your post in regards to using NFS on a handheld signifies the accomplishment is somewhat noteworthy.

    2. Re:Seems pretty basic by Xiamin · · Score: 1

      NFS is already in NetBSD. It's useful for adding more storage and swap (though swap over nfs is pretty painful) to limited systems.

      The point of the article is that you should add NFS if you want to add packages on a palmtop. It'll give you enough storage for the pkgsrc tree and swap and so on.

  18. Hard Times for *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Sure, we all know that *BSD is a failure, but why? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personas?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  19. You're forgetting by agent+dero · · Score: 2, Insightful

    NetBSD is not exactly meant to be a large robust desktop type system, or support everything like the latest GNOME, or KDE versions or various servers. FreeBSD is meant for that, NetBSD is to work on almost everything with a CPU, RAM, and storage device. (OpenBSD is meant for security, duh)

    Each of these has their niche, robustness is not NetBSD's, sorry

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    Error 407 - No creative sig found
    1. Re:You're forgetting by ChristTrekker · · Score: 1

      What exactly do you mean? What's not "robust" about NetBSD?

      NetBSD has a clean, lean design (forced upon it by the multi-architecture ideal) and a stable kernel. What you do with it beyond that is up to you. There are many (relatively speaking of course) people who find NetBSD to be a perfectly acceptable desktop OS.