Oh, I only answered *how* I use NetBSD; I lost track of the *why* part:

 * Inertia is part of it.  I've been using it for several years, now.
   It's not a terribly good reason, but it's human nature.

 * A lean system, complemented by an extensive installable package system.

 * pkgsrc.  (The src part is a big plus, to me, compared to binary-only
   packages; it's nice to be able to pull out the sources and even have
   them patched as they were built, if you want to peek at the sources.)

 * Portability is an OS goal.  From my limited experience with
   programming, portability is a strong code-quality filter.  And, too,
   I only thought that I'd get the one i386 PC and soon be running
   something else.  Instead, here I am with a small famr of i386's
   (1 Athlon, and 3 Pentiums (one each of plain Pentium, PII, and PIII)).
   I'd still like to get out of the i386 trap, though, and NetBSD offers
   me the most options.

 * Open source.

    * Free (as in cost).

    * Free (as in the best Open Source license, IMHO).  This is more of
      an abstract issue for me at the moment, but I now prefer the
      Berkeley license over the GPL.

 * Standard behavior for common interfaces.  (Almost any UNIX reference
   applies to NetBSD.)

 * It's not ready until it's done (no forced or frantic release
   schedules).  (Or it's not done until it's ready?  Something like
   that...)

 * A still relatively small community.  (GNU/LINUX is definitely too
   large for my tastes.)


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu