"Jonathan A. Kollasch" <jakllsch@kollasch.net> wrote:
> I really can't see why anyone would want Mac hardware that's
> not significantly different than stuff that's often cheaper,
> and better supported by NetBSD.

Because one can run all sorts of commercial software without using M$
Windows.  Some people prefer OS X to Windows in terms of stability, lack
of malware, or look and feel.  Others prefer to give money to Apple
instead of Microsoft. And keep in mind you get a bunch of the FreeBSD
userland with OS X, which you do not with Windows.

 The new Intel-based Mac Mini has:

Firewire
Bluetooth
Optical Audio out
Intel GMA 950

 If i'm not mistaken, NetBSD only has preliminary support for
Firewire. And i suspect OS X also better supports the Intel GMA 950
graphics processor in the Mac Mini. And Bluetooth. And Power
suspend/sleep. And whatever audio chip the Mac uses.

 I plugged my Samsung T509 phone into my i386 NetBSD 3.1RC3 machine
yesterday via USB.  NetBSD contrived a geometry for the device, and i was
able to mount part of the storage card as a msdos file system.  But
accessing the files was so slow as to be useless. After i umounted and
unplugged the phone, all future writes seemed to fail. Then i rebooted. I
had to power cycle the machine, because the kernel couldn't sync the file
systems on shutdown. This hasn't happened with OS X on three different
Macs i've used the phone with.

 I love NetBSD, and it's been my primary desktop for about 6 years
now. But can't really agree with that statement.  IMO, NetBSD is better
than MacOS X for many reasons, but desktop-y things are not among them.

 -johan