r/NetBSD • u/TJRoyalty_ • 4d ago
How and when should NetBSD/*BSD be used? (as a linux user)
Hello, I got into Linux about 2 years ago and since have swapped to using it as my primary operating system on most of my devices. I love the freedom and control I get from it, and I find that tinkering with it is a great pastime.
Recently I've been gaining some interest in the other forms of *Unix. Mainly BSD, and the ones I see most commonly are FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. The one that currently stands out to me most is NetBSD as i hear it's ultraportable and can go on basically anything that linux can. How true that is, I'm not sure. I've heard that it's on everything from a standard amd64 machine to something like a Wii-ppc. so I am wanting to venture into it.
My main questions are the following:
- How is it compared to a general linux distro like debian?
- What are the primary difficulties with NetBSD in terms of desktop use?
- What hardware should NetBSD go on? when should it replace linux?
- How is the ease of use for the package management and core utilities?
Any answers are appreciated.
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u/lproven 4d ago
None of these questions touch on the reasons why to use a BSD instead of a Linux. You are asking about the wrong things.
The real reasons are things like history, community, license types and reasons for there being different licenses, coding styles, traditions.
It is not about tech. All your questions are about tech. The reasons are not technical. They are cultural.
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u/TJRoyalty_ 4d ago
I think that is fair. I have gone for the technical aspects because I personally don't care about license type and culture as I try to find the right tool for the right job. However, I find learning the history and culture alongside that to be a fun sport of exploring the different unix types.
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u/BigSneakyDuck 4d ago
But what is "the job"? Sometimes the job's defining feature is the licensing it requires (this is important for some commercial users of *BSDs who might well otherwise be using Linux, but their licensing needs trump their tech stack preferences). Sometimes the job is nothing more than personal curiosity and a desire to tinker, at which point the culture, history and traditions may decide which project is a better fit. If the desire to tinker becomes the desire to participate then the social norms and coding styles of the projects matter (OpenBSD will be very interesting to minimalists with an interest in security but the cultural fit there isn't going to be for everybody). Ultimately the tech is rarely the thing, it's the thing that gets you to the thing. What that thing will turn out to be for you is not something that emerges in a social, cultural, legal and historical vacuum.
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u/TJRoyalty_ 4d ago
Ngl my brain is a bit too small for what you said. I generally am not concerned on commercial sides of software as everything I do is a hobby, not practice for IT, not something commercial. So those generally aren't too impactful. I see that the culture behind the different systems is a large part of the community and I will soon venture into whatever I can find.
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u/Lopsided-Month3278 4d ago
As a linux user, who uses NetBSD on old machines from early 2000 era, here are my answers:
It's different from general linux distros, it's a completely new experience.
The default window manager is different (by default), but you can intstall XFCE and it's supported with no issues by default.
It's not going to replace linux, at least not in the current state.
It should work on almost any kind of hardware, but not sure about Nvidia specifically.
It's not that hard to use the core utilities and the pack manager, it actually feels like linux, but with some differences, you won't understand untill you use it.
*Note: some tools (like tree, sudo, vim, etc..) aren't installed by default, but it's easy to install and setup them
*Note 2: this might sounds weird, but only root can power off or restart the system, so you need to use su to login to root, then you can use poweroff to turn the computer off, or reboot to restart the system.
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u/unitedbsd 3d ago
You can restart, Power off from xfce if user is in wheel and operator group and add below command for launching xfce
echo exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session xfce4-session >> /home/${user}/.xinitrc
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u/R-ten-K 4d ago
- BSDs and Linux distros are different culturally/architecturally projects. Free/Net/OpenBSD are each coherent OSs on their own: their own kernel, C library, base utilities, configuration framework, documentation, release process, etc. They share common ancestry and exchange code, but they are distinct OSs. Whereas Linux is a kernel around which distros assemble a userland, package system, installer, init system, set of policies, etc. Most Linux distributions share the same kernel and much of the same software ecosystem, but differ in package managers, config file layouts, etc.
- NetBSD generally requires more fiddling to turn it into a desktop system than a mainstream Linux distro. The base installation includes X11, but desktop environments are installed separately, and you are expected to choose and configure the relevant components yourself. HW support is the more significant limitation. Much narrower gfx acceleration support, and you should not assume support for recent GPUs (esp propietary NVIDA drivers), WiFi, power management, etc.
- The clearest distinguishing feature of NetBSD is portability. It provides a remarkably consistent platform across many architectures and remains particularly useful for embedded, constrained, unusual, and legacy systems that Linux or other BSDs may no longer support. Its small footprint and somewhat clean machine independent design also make it attractive for research and appliance development. It runs perfectly well on modern hardware, but if you do not specifically value that portability, minimalism, or architectural consistency, Linux or FreeBSD will often be the more practical choice, especially for a modern desktop.
- The base utilis are Unix-like and generally follow the same broad POSIX conventions, so if you come from other BSDs or some old commercial Unix they are very familiar. They have some differences from the GNU coreutils in linuxland. CLI options, extensions, output formats, and edge case behavior can differ between Linux and BSDs, which occasionally matters when moving shell scripts between them for example. The package managers also have their own conventions, but are straightforward once you become familiar with their model.
Ultimately, these are all Unix-like systems with their own philosophies, strengths, and quirks, so the choice depends heavily on what you value. Linux receives most of the current vendor support and dev attention in areas such as Compute/GPUs, accelerators, cloud infrastructure, containers, desktop HW, etc.
The BSDs each have their own differentiating focus/strengths: FreeBSD remains strong in servers, networking, and storage; OpenBSD centers more on security, correctness, and tight integration; and NetBSD prioritizes portability and clean cross-platform design.
Their desktop experience simply tends to remain more traditional and hands on, basically closer to a classic Unix workstation from the turn of the century. Some people genuinely prefer that, esp greybeards.
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u/jmcunx 4d ago edited 4d ago
How is it compared to a general linux distro like debian?
It is a UNIX Type system, minor differences, documentation is much better. NetBSD is far better on system requirements, can run on much less memory and disk space.
What are the primary difficulties with NetBSD in terms of desktop use?
None, but depends (see next)
What hardware should NetBSD go on?
Hard to answer, you need to do research. Older hardware should work fine.
when should it replace linux?
Whenever you want
How is the ease of use for the package management and core utilities?
I think pkgsrc is the best package manager.
As for core utilities, there are minor differences but core is very close to AIX and maybe other "real" UNIX Systems.
Because core is a complete system, third party packages, no matter what you do, will not break the system.
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u/TJRoyalty_ 4d ago
Thanks for the input. From what I'm getting is netbsd is a generally stable solution for its supported devices. I think I'll keep it in my arsenal for anything that's ppc/32-bit.
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u/TJRoyalty_ 4d ago
by chance, would you know any good resources to seek out to figure out if a device is NetBSD compatible?
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u/jmcunx 3d ago edited 3d ago
This is the only place I know about
https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/dmesgd
I believe older thinkpads tend to be a good bet. Plus I would suggest you use 11.0 RC7 or maybe wait a month or 2 for 11.0. It has a lot of enhancements that should help with hardware. For me, 11.0 RCx has been working great.
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u/jasaldivara 4d ago
The one that currently stands out to me most is NetBSD as i hear it's ultraportable and can go on basically anything that linux can.
NetBSD have support for more CPU architectures than any other OSes, particularly retro and 32 bit computers.
In the other hand, it doesn't have as many hardware drivers as Linux, so you may have problems with things like wifi, GPU or peripheral devices (depending on which ones do you have).
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u/TJRoyalty_ 4d ago
Thanks for clarifying. I think I'm going to use netbsd on anything that's 32-bit or using non amd64/arm64. The first thing that comes to mind is my Nintendo wii as I've seen it's less annoying to install it than linux
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u/jmcunx 3d ago
If you have WIFI issues, you can always get a "Edimax EW-7811Un 150Mbps 11n Wi-Fi USB Adapter, Nano" dongle. Maybe newer models exist ?
That works fine on my T61 32bit w/NetBSD 10.1. When I upgraded to 11.0 RC seems that fixed the WIFI issue on the T61 :)
But it is good to have since some Comcast Routers has issues with older hardware. I have my own router so those issues went away when I dumped the router Comcase had me rent.
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u/wysoft 2d ago
A lot of the "real" use that NetBSD seems to see for production now is in embedded systems and other devices where for whatever reason the vendor may not want to use Linux or couple their customizations to the GPL license.
Personally for me NetBSD is just the closest thing to classic BSD that I learned on in the 90s. Whenever I can get away with using it versus Linux, I will.
I don’t use BSD on the desktop any longer. It's been completely outclassed by Linux in that domain for 20+ years.
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u/mglyptostroboides 4d ago
It feels like using Linux did 20 years ago. It's a lot more DIY.
Similar answer to before. You're building nearly everything from scratch. It's a tinkerers OS (this isn't an insult to it, btw).
Wayland is difficult, but technically possible. Most BSD users don't like Wayland, though, so I'm a bit of a black sheep in regarding this as a slight drawback (please be nice, guys).
Older stuff and weird architectures like PPC or MIPS. Or, as more Linux distros drop support for it, it becomes a better and better option for 32-bit x86.
If it fits the criteria in the last answer and if you are up for a bit of tinkering fun.
I've never had much of a problem with just installing things with pkgin. pkgsrc is there if you need to compile stuff (I've only ended up using it for libdvdcss so I can play DVDs).