---In message <20030612151918.GF7352@localhost>

Bernd Sieker <bsieker@freenet.de> said:
>We will of course recommend NetBSD and stress the point that
>
>  _NetBSD_is_not_Linux_at_all!_
>
>Neither is OpenBSD.
>
>These are completely seperate Unix-like operating systems.

 I'd like to second this.  The best way to get a feel for the OSs is to
try them.  I've run OpenBSD and NetBSD on about 1/2 a dozen SPARC
machines, and about 2 years ago, i decided to run NetBSD everywhere i
could. Some of my major reasons for this (such as maintaining just one
source tree across a many different types of hardware) are not at all
related to factors that are important to you.  Additionally, my experience
with OpenBSD is now about 3 years out of date, and like NetBSD, OpenBSD
has changed quite a bit. On top of that, i cannot even remember what the
OpenBSD installer looked like.  The last time i used it may have been
about 5 years ago.

 My point is, things change quickly, and if you want to compare your
current options for OSs on the SPARC, then the best way really is to do it
yourself.  It takes some time, and whether or not it's worth that much
extra time is entirely up to you.

Bernd Sieker <bsieker@freenet.de> said:
>NetBSD works very well on older sparc machines, and on 170MHz
>TurboSPARC with 256MB it will fly.

I run NetBSD on (among other things) two 170 MHz SPARC-5s.  They run very
well; i am very happy NetBSD on them.  For about two years, i was using
one of these SPARC-5s as my desktop. X, TWM, emacs and bash are my
preferred interfaces to the world, and all of these worked perfectly, and
i cannot say enough good things about the pkgsrc collection. IMO, it's
awesome.  It saves me tons of time, and yet i still compile almost
everything i run.

 Unfortunately, i could not find a web browser i was 100% happy with.
Mozilla compiled and ran OK, but was terribly slow.  Compilation took
three times longer than the OS (i believe it was about 22 hours to compile
Mozilla and its dependencies on the 170 MHz SPARC-5) and it ran very, very
slowly. IMO, it was so slow as to be unusable.  The Solaris Netscape
binary ran OK in emulation mode, but i have a vague recollection of some
inconvenience with it.

Bernd Sieker <bsieker@freenet.de> said:
>My guess is that not one person on this mailing list will recommend
>Linux for a SPARCstation.

I'd like to second this, as well.  This mailing list is for people to
discuss issues related to running NetBSD on SPARC hardware. (Not for
general issues relating to any other OS on SPARC hardware.) I have very
little experience with Linux, but what i have seen did not impress me.
Such an opinion should not surprise you.  Asking NetBSD people to about
Linux is like asking gearheads who (enthusiastically) work on and drive
1960s and 1970s U.S. muscle cars what they think of Ricers (people who
make cosmetic changes to (typically low-budget, modern Japanese) cars so
they look and sound faster). 


 --johan