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NetBSD
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Reader supplied reviews for NetBSD
Average rating
9.2 from 16 review(s)
Version: 8.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2019-05-26
Votes: 4
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Running the 8.0_STABLE rolling-release branch.
Lightweight and versatile kiss Unix system, in my case makes a reliable router and web server; as for desktop, recommended specifically on legacy and discontinued hardware, as it shines on a Thinkpad T22 (Pentium III) and on a SunBlade 1000 (UltraSPARC III). Would get along well perfectly with my Pinebook too (including 3d-accelerated graphics) , wasn't it for the unsupported built-in SDIO wifi (issue can be overcome using a USB dongle)
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Version: 8.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-03-10
Votes: 9
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I just love this system. Have it installed on a 32GB SSD, fully functional running awesome wm and using just 2.7GB of disk space. What else is there to say?!
I'm keeping it as minimal as possible, just the way I like it.
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Version: 7.1.2
Rating: 9
Date: 2018-05-28
Votes: 2
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Great little bistro.
Pros:
-BSD-like package management (ports)
-Extremely minimal and universally loved package manager (pkgsrc)
-Easy installer
-Stable
-Tons of packages
Cons:
-Not as secure as OpenBSD
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Version: 7.1.2
Rating: 9
Date: 2018-05-22
Votes: 4
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NetBSD can be a fun hobby grade OS to play around with,
assuming that you have a lot of patience and time.
It took me a while to figure out,(looking through man pages and documentation),
but I got an old desktop to work as a WiFi extender
by appending to, or creating files
(for rc.conf)
dhcpcd=YES
dhcpcd_flags="-qM run0"
wpa_supplicant=YES
wpa_supplicant_flags="-i run0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
pf=YES (used PF for NAT)
auto_ifconfig=yes
ifconfig_urtwn0="inet 10.0.3.1 netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_rtk0="inet 192.168.3.1 netmask 255.255.255.0"
hostapd=YES
dhcpd=YES
(added to sysctl.conf)
net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
created file
/var/db/dhcpd.leases
created appropriate
dhcpd.conf (using main router for DNS),
wpa_supplicant.conf,hostapd.conf,and pf.conf files.
and it worked! (note that the wireless speeds were
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Version: 7.1.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-05-07
Votes: 15
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I'm writing a review for 7.1.2 because i wasn't given the option to pick out NetBSD-current (which is what i use)
NetBSD just happens to be for me the best OS to put on a laptop with limited spec or on embedded devices (I have it on Rpi3, BeagleBone Black). A clean, secure, reliable, extremely lightweight, yet well-performing system with tons of surprising tools included in the best system. It results most suited for older/low-specs laptops (though current hardware support allow it to run on many modern laptops, not as many as Linux obviously), legacy archs (above all MIPS, SPARC64, VAX, i486, PPc, PC98) which rarely get serious support outside BSDs, development (many new users I see are young developers), embedded devices, small servers, routers and firewalls
Great support on mailing lists
I wished more software were available in repo (that's my only true con), but my overall vote is 10/10
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Version: 7.1.1
Rating: 8
Date: 2018-02-10
Votes: 1
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The last review pretty much sums up NetBSD 7.1.1 pretty well.
It is great for learning, but not stable enough for a production environment.
Too many "hacks" to get working
such as for Firefox (Nightly) audio, the only way I can get sound is to compile from source after
# echo 'PKG_OPTIONS.firefox += pulseaudio' >> /etc/mk.conf
otherwise without, or installing binary package will produce no sound
(check # make show-options before/after in /usr/pkgsrc/www/firefox)
for using pkgin to install binary packages you need to change
in /usr/pkg/etc/pkgin/repositories.conf
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/$arch/7.1.1/All
to
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/$arch/7.1/All
to use xdm
in addition to xdm=YES in /etc/rc.conf and ln -s .xinitrc ~/.xsession
you need add to /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config
DisplayManager*authName: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
and doing a full upgrade with
# sysbuild build
# sysupgrade auto ~/sysbuild/release/$(uname -m)
broke my system, lost ("not found" commands)
tab completion
dmesg
disklabel
mount
up arrow in terminal
So basically my install is done
maybe will try an older stable version
like 6.1.5
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Version: 7.1.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2018-01-13
Votes: 4
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Overall it would be a good system to use/try if you wanted to learn about Unix, networking or the fine details of how computer systems work. The documentation provides a lot of additional background information, if what you need is not in the handbook the wiki pages will be helpful ( like for wireless setup).
Some areas could be updated, like USB printers over parallel connections.
but note that if you run the latest release, it may seam somewhat to be a bleeding edge prototype,
meaning you will need to build all software from source
(such as cd /usr/pkgsrc/www/seamonkey make install clean clean-depends) and expect some packages to fail
such as print/hplip or /meta-pkgs/kde4
xfce4 and mate will work fine
if you try to enable binary packages during install, it will fail because there is no
/amd64/7.1.1 directory, and if later you try to compile pkgsrc and export the 7.1 directory (that does exist), any package install attempt will fail
for browsers, don't expect sound in Firefox and expect "server authentication errors in Konqueror
Seamonkey works fine, but the is no icon or entry in the menu, you can download an icon at icones.pro/en/ if you don't want to have to start from the terminal
upgrading with sysbuild and sysupgrade (as in handbook) did break my xfce desktop in a previous release, I have not tried in 7.1.1 yet
lastly having xdm enabled is not working at the moment, even though I have ln -s .xinitrc ~/.xsession
so have it disabled for now and just use startx to start Mate desktop
but as I stated in the beginning, its a good learning experience, with good information in the documentation
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Version: 7.1.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-01-11
Votes: 2
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Amazing, just one word to tell you that you need to try this. It's a UNIX inside, it's not Linux, it's BSD just because of it's license.
Extremely stable and you can use it as your Server OS which is the best part to make your life comfortable with the style of UNIX.
The maximum software you think it needs to run already runs on it and is totally portable. You have a very high range of hardware support which most of the Linux Distributions and other BSD OS' miss.
The Black and White heaven for users, waiting for colors in it's life to be filled by people like us.
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Version: 7.0.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-10-15
Votes: 13
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I've been using NetBSD since version 3, and it has been serving me extremely well. It's stable, it's efficient, and it's reliable. I use it for hosting internet sites (which run mod_perl2, libapreq2, PHP, Java, etc.), and also as an internal corporate networking server (with Samba, OpenVPN, DHCPd, PostgreSQL, an intranet site using Apache HTTPd, etc.).
The introduction of FFSv2 with journaling support made things even better for a fast recovery after a power loss or due to a user accidentally pressing the reset button because processing a handful of file system transaction rollbacks takes seconds rather than the more intensive 10-90 minutes required to run a complete file system check (the time varies depending on the number of files).
I greatly appreciate the excellent work that everyone involved in NetBSD does to make it such a great and wonderful Operating System. Thank you.
Randolf Richardson - randolf@richardson.tw
Beautiful British Columbia, Canada
https://www.randolfrichardson.com/
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Version: 7.0.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-08-14
Votes: 3
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When an innovation limits the audience NetBSD can reach, it is not implemented until that limitation is removed. The exception is when the limitation is the users own ability to implement the system they want. There are already plenty of systems filling that gap. This means that you may have to fit NetBSD into that spot. For some this means not production ready. For others this means not being limited by some other persons idea of production ready.
NetBSD takes time, to determine the best way to integrate new innovations into the system. Some new improvement is not likely to eliminate your ability to continue using NetBSD.
If something you need is missing, it probably just hasn't been ported over to Pkgsrc yet. If you can't do that, then maybe NetBSD is not for you.
If you are passionate about owning the system you use, NetBSD is the place for you. Just keep in mind that if you want to be a NetBSD developer, your development needs to allow others that same ownership.
The opensource spirit, with the Unix and KISS philosophy still intact.
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Version: 7.0.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-07-25
Votes: 1
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A powerful research environment. Especially if you're doing research: you can focus in the work and find a variety of ways to do it. Alongside with pkgsrc almost everything works out-of-the-box. It also has got an impressive and friendly community. Other aspects have been written in the other reviews...
Con: the only "con" NBSD "has" is this: if you're used to others handle your problems, used to solve things by clicking and you're lazy enough to read, NBSD might be not for you.
NetBSD is a delighting experience to work with, even if you're just browsing the net.
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Version: 7.0.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-06-19
Votes: 1
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This is what can be accomplished in the open source landscape. It's truly amazing that this community can make a modern operating system that works on outdated architectures. Well, what can I say next?
If you have some old computer that needs a good ol' kicking, get NetBSD!
It's BSD! A fast, easy to use and polished operating system. Nothing more to say, it's amazing!
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Version: 7.0.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-05-16
Votes: 0
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This is the best kernel to port to different architectures including RISCs, like maker oriented AVRs, & not just CISCs.
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Version: 7.0.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-04-30
Votes: 7
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NetBSD is my daily driver. Excellent piece of software. I was a GNU/Linux user since forever and I switched to NetBSD few years ago without looking back.
There is a helpful community, solid development method, strong technical community, conservative model, focus on correctness (thousands of ATF unit tests) and usefulness. There are commercial vendors around this system and the portable package collection (pkgsrc).
This system is improving rapidly and catching up after competitors, not necessarily being the first it usually produces better solutions.
Perfect choice for server, desktop and embedded.
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Version: 7.0.2
Rating: 9
Date: 2017-04-06
Votes: 1
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NetBSD isn't an OS that will hold your hand during installation and set-up, but it's great for server applications and pretty good for desktop use. It also has a great source-based package manager, pkgsrc.
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Version: 7.0.2
Rating: 4
Date: 2017-03-22
Votes: 3
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Tried NetBSD 7.1, but couldn't get Networking to work even though I tried to follow the directions. I do give credit for NetBSD's success with embedded devices and that it can run on a huge number of platforms. The main flaw is its very difficult to get it to work properly on the desktop, much more so than Slackware. With the exception of GNU/Hurd and Minix, NetBSD is the oldest FOSS operating system still maintained. A GhostBSD style variant of NetBSD would be welcome!
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