Re: NetBSD graphics and audio

["Thomas Mueller" <mueller6724%bellsouth.net@localhost>]

> Hello NetBSD people!
        
> I was considering switching to NetBSD after noticing that the open source
> radeon driver on linux was good enough for me to be able to stop using the
> proprietary one. Seeing as it is open source I thought that maybe NetBSD
> has the same support.

> So looking around I didn't manage to find all that much, it seems like the
> Mesa version is way out of date on NetBSD, which I assume includes the
> gallium drivers, possibly removing NetBSDs chances to become my new main OS
> for game development. Is there a (technical) reason why Mesa is so out of
> date?
        
> The second part of it all is audio, does NetBSD have support for ALSA? I
> need to be able to use some ALSA based software (like ardour and jack etc)
> for my audio workflow. I also hope that the audio drivers are fairly on par
> with linux's, like for example support for USB audio.

> If someone could clarify these things for me it would be fantastic, I am
> posting this to the amd64 list as that would be the port I would be running
> if I switched.

> Sorry if this email is a bit hard to decipher, I am very tired :)
        
> Best regards,
> Isak Andersson
> contact%bitpuffin.com@localhost

You can try NetBSD, and FreeBSD too, but don't burn your bridges on Linux.

Linux is generally ahead of all other open-source OSes for hardware support,
and FreeBSD is for the most part ahead of NetBSD, though NetBSD has some
hardware drivers lacking in FreeBSD (athn for one).

NetBSD base system has no support for ALSA, but you can find ALSA in pkgsrc,
also in FreeBSD ports.

Linux is ahead of the BSDs with regard to Xorg.

Many or most open-source software developers use Linux, so Linux gets in first
with regard to device drivers and applications.  Many of these software 
developers assume Linux-specific file-system structures.

Tom