Hacker News Reader

Maybe the best use case for NetBSD is something you haven't tried yet? The kernel support for Lua seems awesome but that's not the same as running a full desktop environment.

View on HN

i dont need a full desktop i need a modern browser and xterms running ssh to vps. netbsd apparently cant handle that out of the box. what does lua have to do with my described sys admin set up? why is it openbsd can ssh to a remote system and not corrupt the terminal but netbsd can't? why is it on amd64 in 2026 netbsd sees bkspace as ^H? who is the anachronism benefiting? why is it an app can crash x in netbsd but essentially never happens in my experience in openbsd? why are commands failing with no error? why do you need a search engine and a second machine or device to find the PKG_PATH to add binary packages on a new install?

your whole post definitely does not come across as 'reflections';

netbsd is more suitable for headless/server/embedded than desktop; now you know it first hand ;)

see what people call desktop for a sys admin in unix is the ability to run xterms and ssh without having to remap keys on a standard pc kbd or get into arcane teminal configuration just to do admin tasks. I dont need a desktop (and dont have a desktop) I need working terminal. i figured out my issues but the point stands, xterm ssh from netbsd to debian should not corrupt a terminal or require debugging two dozen possible causes. Have normal defaults. on OpenBSD I never needed to touch terminal settings if I didnt want to same with linux. only netbsd is stuck in 1982 where it is question if bkspace is del or ^H.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com