Two things:
1) “We were” (sorry I had to do it).
2) Why NetBSD? Why not FreeBSD or Debian or heck even Ubuntu Server or RHEL/CentOS (forgot it was 2005)?
Glad you got the spend more time with the family!
openbsd = security: internet exposed services
netbsd = portability: already ported / most easily portable to every cpu arch & platform including old and new obscure ones. If you want a big-endian os for whatever academic reason, it's netbsd on an old sun sparc or pi3. I had an HP Jornada that had a SH3 cpu and shipped with wince, the only alternative os on that was netbsd.
I love the subtlety of the dual-use closing-parenthesis here.
I think that all 3 of the BSD's have matured into GREAT server operating systems.
My work environment has for many years used FreeBSD as file servers, both with UFS / and most recently with ZFS. excellent performance!
of minor related interest, at the Santa Clara California restaurant 'Empress of India', both the original NetBSD development team and some of the Linux folks (Linus particularly, who lived a couple of blocks away), would dine at that same restaurant in the 1980's and early 1990's... ...The NetBSD folks would sometimes wear a shirt with a BSD daemon 'buttf' the Linux penguin from behind...
Linux has also matured into an impressive OS. I personally think that the principle *BSD/GNU/Linux crews all deserve to share in a Nobel peace prize for their impact on the world... Much more positive impact on the world than that gates-crap DOS/DimDoze.
even in 2005 this is abysmal. no reflection of netbsd tho - likely a terrible app.
No idea where it is now but this post has inspired me to have a look.
I think the thing with the BSDs in general was the fact I didn’t always even need any extra software packages on them. The base install was that useful.
The base install _was_ useful. Can still do stuff like write, and those sorts of old packages still work, but browsers.... not so much.