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OS Review: NetBSD 1.6.2 on SPARC64

Posted by michael on from the esoterica dept.

JigSaw writes "NetBSD is the king of operating system portability, running on 40+ different hardware platforms, including x86, MIPS, and even the Sega Dreamcast. So it comes as no surprise that among the supported platforms, NetBSD runs on Tony Bourke's Sun Ultra 5. Here is his review."

4 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. the only alternate OS for NeXT boxen? by Artifex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I haven't looked recently, but other than NeXTStep, the only OS I ever found that could run on my basic black slab was NetBSD, and even that had to be strapped from a bootserver, with no local disk support. I'm not sure whether it's more a testament to the wacky hardware or how tenacious the NetBSD teams have been that they were able to do this at all...

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    Get off my launchpad!
  2. Re:The only real competitor to Linux... by DashEvil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure that really clean stable code + a license to do whatever you want with it is really all the reason they need.

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    -If God wanted people to be better than me, he would have made them that way.
  3. Re:The only real competitor to Linux... by Homology · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I have to wonder what's driving Net's adoption in the embedded space. Is it technical merit, or the the BSD license allowing vendors to keep their changes closed?

    I've often wondered why some companies choose to use Linux when they are unwilling to show their source code. It clearly has not been to the advantage of the companies involved to be exposed as not complying with the GPL. It is risky business decision to choose to ignore license issues.

    Perhaps more attention will be given to the *BSD family with it's technically very good OS and a free license.

  4. I *hate* OSNews reviews by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Why, oh why, do I keep letting myself be suckered into reading these piles of drivel? I know I'll lose an IQ point every time I do, but I just can't keep from looking.

    For example, I have no idea why you would ever not use pkgsrc (or ports) to build packages whenever possible. The reviewer goes on for half a page about his troubles compiling OpenSSL from source. No kidding? That's why we have pkgsrc and ports - someone else has already solved all the little problems for you!

    Likewise, he's incredulous that his locally-built package using uber-elite optimization flags runs faster than the downloadable binary package. Frankly, that's like being amazed that a locally-built Debian package may be faster than the generic i386 package that you can download.

    I honestly don't know why they label these diatribes as "reviews", when they should be called "a day spent with a system I don't understand".

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    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?