How is the hardware/driver support for NetBSD in comparison with FreeBSD or Linux?
Is it better, worse, or about the same? I'm considering using a Mac Mini G4 as a server, and was wondering whether to put FreeBSD, NetBSD, or Linux on it.
I know all of them will have drivers for the G4, but if I wanted to put any on a newer computer, how would the hardware support be?
NetBSD and OpenBSD have had good PowerPC support for quite some time, whereas FreeBSD's port is relatively new. You'll want the 'macppc' port for any Apple system.
Been a while since I've used a PPC, but I'm guessing hardware support under Linux and NetBSD probably wouldn't differ too much these days.
I do remember Linux being slightly less fiddly on PPC when it comes to boot loaders.
Pathologically, older SPARC and SGI MIPS boxes are probably a lot better off on OpenBSD where they are actively developed for and tested. Linux casts a wide net but has a lot of bit rot in the dark corners of it's hardware support.
Run FreeBSD on it...NetBSD on PowerPC essentially requires a dual-boot or Apple_BOOT partition. FreeBSD has a cleaner boot (amongst BSDs, anyway...I do like yaboot).
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How is the hardware/driver support for NetBSD in comparison with FreeBSD or Linux?
Is it better, worse, or about the same? I'm considering using a Mac Mini G4 as a server, and was wondering whether to put FreeBSD, NetBSD, or Linux on it.
I know all of them will have drivers for the G4, but if I wanted to put any on a newer computer, how would the hardware support be?
NetBSD and OpenBSD have had good PowerPC support for quite some time, whereas FreeBSD's port is relatively new. You'll want the 'macppc' port for any Apple system.
Been a while since I've used a PPC, but I'm guessing hardware support under Linux and NetBSD probably wouldn't differ too much these days.
I do remember Linux being slightly less fiddly on PPC when it comes to boot loaders.
To my knowledge, you can safely assume all BSD variants run behind Linux in terms of driver support for new hardware.
Pathologically, older SPARC and SGI MIPS boxes are probably a lot better off on OpenBSD where they are actively developed for and tested. Linux casts a wide net but has a lot of bit rot in the dark corners of it's hardware support.
Run FreeBSD on it...NetBSD on PowerPC essentially requires a dual-boot or Apple_BOOT partition. FreeBSD has a cleaner boot (amongst BSDs, anyway...I do like yaboot).