NetBSD
This information is taken from Deamonnews.org.
While Jolitz and others were focusing on 386BSD, others were frustrated at the pace of work and began a parallel development effort. Additionally, others at Virginia Tech took the introductory work on 386BSD and the just released Net/2 and started porting BSD to the Macintosh. The development effort soon expanded to the Atari ST, Amiga, and PC platforms. As NetBSD grew, it soon became obvious that FreeBSD's niche would be the i386 and up Intel systems and NetBSD would provide BSD for any other platform desired.
Today, NetBSD's focus lies in providing a stable, multiplatform, research oriented operating system. NetBSD's portability leads it to run on 33 platforms as of January 2001. Even more impressive is the list of hardware including traditional modern server equipment like standard Intel-based PCs, Compaq's Alpha, or Sun Microsystem's SPARC architectures. Older server and workstation class hardware like the Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX hardware, Apple's Macintosh computers based on Motorola's 68000 processor series are also support. But what really sets NetBSD apart is its support for more exotic hardware including Sega's Dreamcast, Cobalt Network's server appliances, and George Scolaro's and Dave Rand's PC532 hobbyist computer.
NetBSD's dedication to portability has led the way for other operating systems. When the FreeBSD group began porting to the Alpha platform, the initial work from the NetBSD project provided the foundation. With new FreeBSD ports to both the PowerPC and SPARC platforms under way, work from NetBSD is being used again. Linux has benefited from NetBSD's experience as well. The special booter used by NetBSD on the 68000-series Macintosh computers was modified and became the Penguin booter used to launch Linux on these systems. Finally, NetBSD's largest contribution to other systems lies in acting as a springboard for the OpenBSD operating system.
The NetBSD Project also wants to present a platform for world-class operating systems research. Because of NetBSD's availability on vintage hardware, schools and research institutions can perform real world research on donated or surplus equipment. Chuck Cranor's UVM memory system was developed to replace NetBSD's Mach-based virtual memory system. The UVM system offers several performance enhancements over the traditional virtual memory system and is now used on almost all platforms supported by NetBSD. Another major project developed on NetBSD is KAME. KAME aims to introduce IPv6, IPsec for both IPv4 and IPv6, and other TCP/IP enhancements to the Unix world. Other projects have chosen NetBSD for usage in aerospace applications and clustered environments.
The NetBSD developers have provided a stable and simple environment which makes it convenient for research and development. But NetBSD is an excellent system in its own right. Coming with a full complement of Unix tools, many sites use NetBSD as DNS or other network servers, especially due to its wide-open hardware requirements. NetBSD is in such wide use, Wasabi Systems was founded simply to provide support for NetBSD users. Wasabi also sells NetBSD CDs and related advocacy tools.
NetBSD's omnipresence on computer equipment is a testament to a well-designed and well-organized operating system. By leading the industry in portability, NetBSD has paved the way for Darwin, MacOS X, Linux, as well as FreeBSD and OpenBSD. It has also given birth to new technology through systems research.