Of course there is, because it’s very easy to outperform any 2.4 Linux kernel.

>yeah, recommend BSD then get a sh*t load complaints in the mailing lists when it doesn’t detect your hardware correctly.

So what? Using Ubuntu and feed a forum with ‘billions’ of problems because of instable drivers, applications crashing and so on. Don’t compare hype with a real UNIX derivative.

No web access, because I only have one running PC.

Australian mirrors don’t have 3.1 (only 3.0!), which sucks.

If you’re Australian and can host, please do so!
I wonder if the pkgsrc repo is available in torrent, hrm……………………………

Ubuntu and all of its derivatives are specialized distros stemming out of Debian, so one could do a Debian net install and add in IceWM, Xfce, etc., and a host of applications just as easily as NetBSD. Easier, IMHO. I think Debian has much better hardware detection than NetBSD. Maybe it’s just been my bad experience trying to get the BSDs to detect things like USB keyboards and mice during install phases that leaves me believing that.

I also just read your blog on the bloat found in many Linux desktop distros. You’re right. Many of them are very mature (stable) in what is only now getting started in the BSD universe by projects like FreeSBIE, Dragonfly, and FreeBSD. They’re bloated because they try to be all things to lots of people. They’ve also spawned off a lot of specialty projects. Several of them, like Knoppix and Morphix, are modular and easy enough to remaster that people use them to make their own distros. Among the bloat-free distros available are Slax (several Slackware-based mini-distros), Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux, and Deli Linux (which is especially aimed at older machines light on resources). DSL and Feather are also quite suited for older machines, can be installed on thumb drives (so can Slax and Morphix), can be remastered so the user adds whatever he wants, etc. I use a Knoppix remaster on my primary (400 mhz) computer. It has a very goofy configuration but the older version of Knoppix detected everything properly right off the bat.

In fairness, Debian and Slackware offer the same base build options you applaud the BSDs for having. Gentoo and other source-based distros (Source Mage, Lunar) take that even further but they’re geared for hackers and not the crowd drawn to the “automagic” ease, ample-ness, convenience, and eye-candy appeal of something like Ubuntu.

Simplicity isn’t something I associate with a BSD install. I’ve done many installs of various Linux distros with nary a problem — maybe tweaking X settings for mice with Slackware. Hardware detection is what will distinguish BSD and Linux in the future if more people do migrate away from Windows.

And at the end of the day, more people are going to be drawn to the simplicity of something as “bloated” as Ubuntu because it means having everything they want (and more), ready to go, or very nearly so, from installation. It’s not bloat to them, it’s function and convenience. They don’t want to have to go looking through pkgsrc or use apt-get, much less ./configure && make && make install their own systems. So bloat does have its place in the world, just not on my computers.