I have a problem.

Yeah. There's no question. I think that I like computers too much. But not the new stuff, and certainly not the iPhone. I like the old stuff. Which is probably why I've started to play with NetBSD.

Let me tell you, it's one damn interesting OS. I know; there are some predicting their doom any day now, and NetBSD certainly could use some more developers/resources, but that doesn't change the fascination level. Or the fact that it clearly outperforms (subjectively) Debian on more than one level. I've been quite blown away with its performance under heavy loads on my little ol', ancient laptop.

This is not to say that Debian doesn't rock. It does, and since I also have it installed on my computer it better continue to rock. But for the time being, I'm seriously enjoying my time with NetBSD. And to that end, I will make a (likely inconsistent) attempt to post my thoughts on it here.

There's one primary reason for this. I've often noticed that Linux makes me Lazy. Debian developer automagic works so well, most of the time, that I seldom research the why behind much of the magic. Roughly speaking, the NetBSD family doesn't give you that option. Either learn, or stumble around dissatisfied. But in being "unfriendly", I'm given the opportunity to learn on a deeper level.

Here's a simple illustration. (Definitely overly simple for you sysadmins out there, but worth noting for the beginner.) The NetBSD command typed without options will give you an unsorted list of your installed packages. But will give that list alphabetised. And because we are all gripping our seats with that thrilling revelation, let's now do I love the simple flexibility of unix-type operating systems.