Hi Robert,

I think part of the problem is that the developers have day jobs, and 
some have families too, and there's not a lot of time to go around. 
Stability and correct design (get it right the first time) is a strong 
point for NetBSD, unlike Linux, which is nearly re-written for every 
release.

Also, NetBSD developers need these machines to work on, and I would 
imagine they get nowhere near the support the Linux folks do, who are 
the darlings of corporations with deep pockets.

I have only just got my hands on a dual processor Itanium2 system, and 
while I can't speak for other developers, this is hard yakka coding and 
documentation.  NetBSD already supports 64-bit platforms, but as always, 
more can be done, it can always be improved, and more drivers are needed.

Microsoft gets chipset documentation years in advance of everyone else, 
IF "everyone else" gets any docs at all!

http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#37

Hardware manufacturers help in their small way to cripple other OSes by 
not letting them anywhere near the docs.  I wouldn't be surprised if 
Microsoft's monopoly is helped along with deals like this.

Even the mighty IBM's OS/2 died because of the dearth of device drivers.

Hope this helps put things into perspective,
James