NetBSD - present and future
 

Hello. I am a person passionate about UNIX/Linux in general. NetBSD is one of the operating systems I have never tried. Currently I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 which needs to access an WL500gP router in a wireless fashion via a Broadcom card. It currently runs Debian, no hassles.

Anyway. I was thinking I should give NetBSD a try, however, I would like to appeal to the current NBSD users to give me some insight as to the project status.

Do you, as a NetBSD user, believe that NetBSD has a future on Desktops/Workstations, or do you expect its days are numbered (i.e. it will "live" for 5 or so more years, and then vanish).

Obviously I'm asking for subjective replies, I doubt anyone can make some cold hard math and print the future of the project.

We can look at Linux and almost certaintly say that it will be here in 5 years, unless some greatly unexpected event takes place. We can look at FreeBSD and almost ceraintly say the same thing.

So: as a NetBSD user, how do you find the over-all "user experience" (you can be a desktop user, you can run a server on netbsd, you can be a developer and program using netbsd, it doesn't matter), and do you think this project will survive and remain one of the top UNIX Operating Systems "out there"?

I've read NetBSD's mailing list about "The Future of NetBSD" and if I were you, I wouldn't take it seriously. I'm not a NetBSD user, though I have used it in the past (and really, its a dandy system!), however, from a FreeBSD vantage, I continue to see work imported from NetBSD (and vice versa). That seems to indicate to me that the NetBSD project is still very much alive and it will most likely be here in the distant future. I can't understand how a former founder could cast doubt, in public, on his own project.