LinuxQuestions.org - Significance of *BSD

OpenBSD - "So, Microsoft's out to get me... and I know 3 hackers looking for ways to exploit my PC; I guess my only chance for survival is OpenBSD."
NetBSD - "I just bought a laptop and I'm sick and tired of all of this modprobe and 2 hour kernel compilation bullshit; I'm going to start using NetBSD."
FreeBSD - "Hey! I just bought a new graphics card, but I don't like Linux or Windows... I think I'll try FreeBSD!!!"

Seriously? It really depends on the person..
Most argue that OpenBSD is the most secure... which they're probably right about...
And FreeBSD is mostly used as a desktop OS-- they always try to get stuff like webcams or graphics cards working on FBSD like Linux or Windows.
However, FreeBSD and OpenBSD aren't as laptop/palm-pc/toaster-compatible as NetBSD...

For example, the other day I installed OpenBSD on my laptop, but my PCMCIA wifi card just wouldn't work. (It kept timing out... I googled for a solution only to find that there are people who have had my problem about two years ago... and noone has bothered to fix it!!)

I installed FreeBSD5 a few months back... I had pretty much the same problem... but it was worse; it wouldn't even DETECT the card. (vs. OpenBSD just not being able to use it)

With NetBSD, out of the box with the GENERIC-LAPTOP kernel it works fine.... and the real advantage to the BSDs (NetBSD atleast) is that you don't have to modprobe or anything for plug and play... like, you buy a new USB hard drive, plug it in, and BAM! dmesg will tell you NetBSD would have detected it and assigned it a dev... no modprobe this, modprobe that or lsmod this or lsmod that... just mount it and you're good to go.

Another thing, kernel recompilation (With OpenBSD and NetBSD atleast) is a LOT simpler to do than Linux..
For example, after grabbing syssrc.tar.gz (Which is probably going to be no more than 20MB... WITH GZ COMPRESSION) and untarring in /usr/, here's how the typical kernel recompilation would go:

cd /usr/src/sys/arch/i386/conf/
cp GENERIC MYCONF
vi MYCONF *uncomment or comment the lines of the devs/buses you don't need*
:wq!
config MYCONF
cd ../compile/MYCONF
make clean
make depend
make
make install

And restart and you're fine.... no ncurses this, ncurses that, 1 hour this, 1 hour that, no...
On my Pentium 4 1.4GHz laptop, it takes no more than 10 minutes (if I've enabled EVERYTHING) to compile a kernel.

However, with all of these advantages, you have some small disadvantages.
e.g. wine is currently broken for NetBSD (and OpenBSD I hear), as well as the fact that there's only limited webcam support, and we don't have a fully-functional version of DRI yet (no 3d acceleration) but oh well, we'll get there one day.

Anyway, hope you found my rambling somewhat beneficial. :)