Why folks continue to recommend Netbsd over Deb is a mystry to me which is why I ask "why", hoping somebody will throw in one reasonable use that isn't covered by linux.
I suppose in some respects this is goes beyond any particular platform and into the wider Linux vs *BSD debate. Seeing as both are unixes (I'm not going to split hairs about being Unix like - small u in unix should suffice :-) there is not going to be much difference between them at the command line. I would expect there to be about as much difference between the two as between Linux and Solaris or *BSD and AIX or maybe even less difference as ideas cross pollinate between the two. Other than personal choice preferences, it's going to come down to which supports the hardware you have best and which is better at handling what applications you want to throw at.
So, on our platform I think it is going to come down to personal preference more than anything, unless you want colour X support. I would love to know why X on Linux supports colour better than NetBSD, seeing as I always thought the X server was somewhat independant of the kernel it's running on or at the very least the NetBSD folk would look at what the Linux folk have done and gone 'oh right, that's what you need to do'. Other than that, I think NetBSD has slightly better hardware support. But again, we are talking slight differences in hardware support, and if you particular setup is equally supported then it will come down to personal preference.
Personnaly, I have never cared that much for Debian - when I first tried installing it awhile back (on x86) I was presented with an ugly, almost unusable and generally confusing mess of a text display, when I tried FreeBSD on the same box it was a lot clearer and easier, so I started to prefer BSD (slightly temepered by my installing of OpenBSD, which was more confusing than FreeBSD, but at least not as ugly or confusing as the Debian install I tried). Also, I've become a fan of the BSD style packages system, so much so that I wish Fink on OS/X used it instead of dselect which I find to be a ugly and slightly confusing, I think every time I use it I think 'there must be a better way'. Maybe if there was a RedHat style disto of Linux/Mac68k I'd be using that, but between Debian and NetBSD my choice would be NetBSD. Of course I could be wrong and Debian is now a dream to use, which is why as soon as I can find a nice cheap external drive on ebay, I plan on giving it a go. I suppose that's the best answer when somebody asks which one to use - "try both and see which one works best for you".
Scot
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