Lennart Augustsson wrote:
> Even as a non-VAX user (but I do love VAXen) I agree with you.
> There is far too much bloat in NetBSD these days.  I can see
> how my kernel grows slowly every time I recompile.  And I don't
> even get any new drivers etc for this extra cost.
> 

It would be very useful if the NetBSD website had documentation
describing how to strip down the kernel and userland for embedded
systems. There was a short mailing list thread a while ago that
described an attempt at producing the most minimalist NetBSD install
possible, but something official (that showed how to build without PAM
support for example) would be great.

That said, the only embedded work I've done used an Arcom machine that
was in many ways more powerful than my Sun workstation!

> Chuck McManis wrote:
>> I've not completely vanished either. My "House of VAX" pages still get 
>> hit pretty regularly on my web site. Generally I've become a bit 
>> disappointed in NetBSD in general (perhaps in all of the *BSDs) in 
>> that the lean/mean operating system that had just as much as you 
>> needed but not too much seems to have been lost in a world where a PC 
>> with 256MB of main memory is considered practically an embedded 
>> system. The VAX has always represented for me the ultimate CISC 
>> machine, something that ran a multi-user operating system in less 
>> bytes than any thing else. I love having 32 terminals hooked up to a 
>> MicroVAX II and it isn't really even breaking a sweat.
>>
>> That isn't NetBSD's charter, I understand that. Maybe 4.3 Tahoe is the 
>> best thing you can run on the machine these days.
>>
>> --Chuck
>>

Chris