On Mon, May 03, 1999 at 10:42:08AM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote:

> I can understand his problem.  When I wrote an article for SunWorld, I
> sent messages to NetBSD and OpenBSD asking "what's special about your
> version of BSD?".  The OpenBSD people answered (approximately)
> "Open-BSD's focus is on security".  The NetBSD response was closer to
> "Open-BSD says their focus is on security, but we're just as secure".
> Sure, this is a simplification, but I was left without anything
> obvious to say about NetBSD.  I thought about this for a while, and I
> think I did a fair job of explaining what each one is about, but I'm
> always left with a feeling that I can't adequately explain what NetBSD
> is good for.  My personal feeling is "Of course it runs NetBSD": in
> other words, it's a BSD version which runs on nearly all platforms.
> Is that fair?

It's hard to think of NetBSD as being less focussed on security than any
other platform out there, given that we traditionally have fewer holes
than other platforms, in my experience.

If you're looking to describe the BSDs, then you can say that NetBSD is
focussed on security, code correctness, and platform independence. If you're
looking to differentiate the BSDs, then you can always point at NetBSD's
machine independant focus as lending itself to earlier adoption of new
technologies like USB.

-- 
Mason Loring Bliss             (( "In the drowsy dark cave of the mind dreams
mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us  )) build  their nest  with fragments  dropped
http://acheron.ne.mediaone.net ((  from day's caravan." - Rabindranath Tagore