Richard Rauch <rkr@olib.org> writes:

> Re. http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-help/2003/06/26/0016.html
> 
> You can check the current number of packages in NetBSD's package system
> (it's around 3000, I think).  However, I have two points of view on that:
> 
>  * After about the 1000 mark, pretty much everything that most users
>    will want is already in there.  It's nice to have more options, and
>    more obscure things, of course.

If I look at
<http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/software/pkg-growth.html>, I see
that NetBSD has reached the 1000 with version 1.4.1 in 1999. But
before version 1.6 I couldn't even think about seriously using NetBSD,
because my PC is equipped rather with a ISDN board than a modem (the
kernel didn't support ISDN before, am I right?). Is ISDN really just
"more options" or a "more obscure thing"?

[By the way, does anybody know something like ``xisdnload'' for
NetBSD? That is a graphical ISDN load meter allowing to connect and
disconnect the ISDN connection by mouse click.]

>  * Comparing two different package systems based on the number of packages
>    seems a little bit dubious.

Ok, I agree. But I noticed that there are some programs that I'm used
to (by Debian GNU/Linux), but which don't seem to be available for
NetBSD. Probably a NetBSD user trying to run Debian GNU/Linux would
also miss some programs, who knows?

Regards
  Thomas
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