Thank you to NetBSD for sticking to its goals.  I continue to use Debian
on my big box (force of habit and it works for me) but can't run it on
my old box anymore.  

Etch's (and Sarge's before it) installer is great but it takes too many
resources to run.  NetBSD installs cleanly, simply, and quickly.  If you
read the documentation ahead of time (hint hint) you can do anything
that Etch's installer will.

I would be interested in reading a technical comparision of NetBSD and
Debian (not a flame fest or a religious debate) to understand for
example, _why_ the rc system is better than sysVinit (as implemented by
debian), _how_ the kernel differs.

I'll continue to poke around with NetBSD and learn how and why it works.  

Thanks,

Doug.