Hi,

no offense but :
- if you want bleegin-edge device support, go for FreeBSD ; they are
supposed to have i386 (and so amd64 I guess) wider support.
- with the NetBSD-daily process, you have kind of release process ; I
mean, you can install already compiled binaries from CD/FTP. Sure pkgsrc
binaries are not ready for -BETA or -CURRENT, but you can build them
your-self and share between your servers/workstation :)

I've also been faced to "erf, this hardware is not supported on my
beloved NetBSD". But most of the time, it was: heh heh, only NetBSD
supports my hardware (thinking here of Archos Studio MP3 player ; only
Linux and NetBSD know how to mount its disk, and Linux often freezes
when the disk is accessed...)

I also recentyl buy and AMD64 machine (shuttle) where the on-board LAN
isn't supported. So I took an old 3COM from my cuboard and will wait
till one has time to developp driver for the onboard ethernet card (as
I don't know how to code one).

In the same time, I can use my Adaptec SCSI U160 card on my Ultra5
because NetBSD has a nice hardware layer ; Solaris/sparc don't have
drivers for this card...

I really prefer an OS that works rock-solid with 100 drivers than one
which supports 1000 drivers and has fancy behaviour (no name given :)

Some folks (from other free BSD project) often say : 
it doesn't work for you ? have you start coding anything ?

I don't really like this behaviour, but the idea is there.
If you can't code things yourself, just wait till someone has time to
do it. Maybe asking for the driver can speed up things though.

I really consider NetBSD clean and solid enough to accept delay in
hardware support.

Kind regards,
	Jo

On the last episode (Tue, 26 Jul 2005 11:59:50 +0200), "Robert Cates"
<robert@kormar.net> said:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm so excited about 64-bit processors on the desktop, and the AMD64
> processors in particular, that I finally scraped some money together to buy
> some hardware and installed NetBSD/AMD64 2.0.2 on it.  Everything went well
> except for no support for the BCM5751 NIC.  I can accept the fact that the
> NetBSD Foundation cannot pump out new stable/formal releases of NetBSD
> everytime a new hardware device is put on the market, but can't the NetBSD
> Foundation speed up the releases just a bit more, without someone having to
> go to NetBSD-Current(?)...
> 
> Originally I saw on the NetBSD web site that the BCM5751 was supported (this
> is not AMD64 specific), but later found out that the info on that page
> pertained to NetBSD-Current (an oversite on my part).  Today I went to the
> AMD64 web site and followed the link under "Future Releases" (Changes from
> 2.0 to 3.0), and found absolutely nothing for the AMD64 port.  WHY??  I
> think even if the changes for the i386 apply to the AMD64, it should be
> noted, and "AMD64" should be present.
> http://www.netbsd.org/Changes/changes-3.0.html and
> http://www.netbsd.org/Changes/changes-4.0.html
> 
> Next, I saw that there are changes listed already for NetBSD 4.0.  WHEN IS
> 3.0 GOING TO BE RELEASED??  I think some sort of (tentative) schedule should
> be posted on the NetBSD web site (right on the front page), and the
> Foundation should be a bit more committed to keeping that schedule.
> 
> I've been a huge fan of NetBSD, the OS, since about 1995, but I can
> understand when one asks "Why is Linux so popular?", and it irritates me
> personally.  I would prefer to use NetBSD exclusively, but they're lagging
> in some important areas.
> 
> I hope you've not misunderstood my point(s), and this message gets to the
> right NetBSD members, for the good of NetBSD, and especially the AMD64 port.
> 64-bit workstation/desktop computing is the future!
> 
> Oh, one last thing - are the iso images available from NetBSD for the i386
> port compiled and optimized for the i586 class processors and up?  They
> should be in my opinion (or does it not matter with NetBSD), and that info
> should also be on the web site.
> 
> Thanks much!
> Robert
> 
>