NetBSD: Where to next?

Charles Hannum (one of the four originators of NetBSD) has posted an e-mail sent to the netbsd-users mailing list questioning NetBSD's relevance in todays world. He asserts that unless major changes happen in the project and the current leadership of the NetBSD foundation changes, NetBSD may indeed become irrelevant.

In my mind, NetBSD has always seemed like the third runner-up of the BSD world. MacOS X is the current and future market leader, FreeBSD is the patriarch, and OpenBSD with its companion project OpenSSH have a strongly opinionated leader driving it forward.

But NetBSD just doesn't seem to have any buzz going for it. I must admit buzz is a relative term in the BSD world, especially in relation to Linux, but in order for any of the BSD projects to continue each one needs a strong champion and a committed team. I'm sure there are good developers doing good work, but without a kick in the pants, Mr Hannum may be right.

NetBSD just doesn't have a compelling feature(s) or charismatic leader(s) to drive it. If it doesn't get both of those fast, then NetBSD will slowly, painfully fade out of existence.