Re: The imperfect beauty of NetBSD [Was: NetBSD vs. FreeBSD]

[Alex Goncharov <alex-goncharov%comcast.net@localhost>]

,--- You/Thor (Thu, 7 Jan 2010 11:21:24 -0500) ----*
| > The key to resolving problems is timeliness of inquires and responses.
| 
| It's more than a little difficult for volunteers to respond to you
| quickly and in an meaningful way if you don't provide the basic data
| in an unmodified form!

I am a volunteer myself in a couple of projects, so, don't tell me :-)

Just how much of information in an "unmodified form" would you like?

Megabytes of unsorted random stuff?  I tried to be discreet, with my
limited understanding of what could be used -- and what programs are
available.  The PR I entered has a huge acpidump output.

I don't even know how to find the loaded drivers in NetBSD -- the best
I could provide was 'sysctl -a | grep drv'.

| I'm glad FreeBSD 8 is working for you.  Given, however, that every
| other operating system you tried to use reported severe ACPI issues,
| I have to say I'm a little surprised, and I tend to think there must
| be something more than a little nonstandard or broken about your
| system's hardware....

Re ACPI errors and, for Unixes, `halt -p' being `poweroff':

  * Windows 7 -- OK.
  * OpenSolaris -- not OK.
  * FreeBSD 8 -- OK.

In what sense is that "every other"?

Now, FreeBSD does "dmesg" the insanity of ACPI -- once.  After that
it's silent. It never throws errors on the console.  It doesn't try to
use the insane ("doesn't make sense", it says, AFAIR) ACPI parameters
and log that over and over.  OpenSolaris and NetBSD diligently grow
the `messages' file -- and try to find something new and important
there, in that mess.

Look, I am not trying to stick a finger in anybody's eye: I am a very
well-disposed-to-NetBSD person and would like to use it -- it's
educating in many respects, and feels good generally.

I am trying to be helpful to the NetBSD developers, providing honest
and well-meant feedback.

I joined the NetBSD discussions one year ago, vehemently disputing the
need of the "GUI-fied NetBSD".  I am that user who tries to find the
fundamental beauty in the OS -- performance, reliability, sanity.

Not making a judgment about where NetBSD stands in that regard, but
personally, I am less enthused about it now.  I'll watch it more from
the outside for now.

Thanks,

-- Alex -- alex-goncharov%comcast.net@localhost --