Quote
whohlme - 2007-10-11 4:22 PM
Hello everyone,
Perhaps this is place I should have posted this thread, but I started it on the JLime forums in a post entitled "JLime vs. NetBSD", which could've been seen as a challenge. I've also posted on the BSD Forums about this, but no one has answered yet.
My main question is what kind of functionality would one gain by using NetBSD? I know it's very portable and seems elegant, clean, fast and cool, but I heard from the JLime guys that it was slow in a GUI environment. One advantage for the Jornada 7xx is that NetBSD works with sound, so that would be a reason, but I guess I'm asking the bigger question of "why"? I've heard that the BSDs' primary use is on the server, so what good would it do an HPC user? I've seen some benefits with Linux (JLime), and was wondering if anyone whose used NetBSD could give me some info. Also, It's been really hard to try and get NetBSD installed as compared to Linux since I think you have to have the OS installed on another computer. Perhaps I'll try to find a workaround...Anyways, is it really that slow, and how useful is it as compared to Windows CE or Linux?
I used NetBSD on an X86 Laptop with Wi-fi and tried both KDE and ROX filer with OROBOROX desktp...
Really enjoyed it
(though a steep learning curve
) but at the end of the day although 100's of applications there was not a flash plugin for any of the browsers
(well I think there was one for opera but it wasn't pre-built and compiling was just a step too far for me at that time
).
I seriously looked at it for the Jornada 720
(to run somthing very light in the way of WM like OROBOROX or IceWM but there were hardly any pre-built packages and I wasn't prepared to set up a box to do all the crosscompiling required when I just wanted to give it a little go.
As you say NetBSD is actually quite complete on the Jornada with better suspend and sound support. I think if someone was to put to gesther some pre-built system
(along the lines of Jlime
) it would be imediatly popular.
Not sure if it translates to NetBSD on the ARM but on X86 it could also emulate linux and run linux programs
(Opera on NetBSD was the linux version
).
I always thought NetBSD tended to be quite fast and the fact it is slow in a WM may be just down to a full rather than optimised fast X-windows.
If someone has or did make a prebuilt package I would be giving it a go in a second...
John
Edited by mr-mac 2007-10-11 12:29 PM