Mailing Lists: NetBSD used the Majordomo mailing list which is a program that automates the management of Internet mailing lists In the mailing list the most discussed problems are the ones connected to port issues. There are 5 mail list categories: 1.1 General lists - general information about announcements, events, etc.. 1.2 pkgsrc lists - package source management system. 1.3 Port lists - ports. 1.4 Regional lists - country, state ,etc. 1.5 Technical lists - installation , perfomance, etc. Each bug report is sorted by 3 categories: 2.1 Severity - The severity of the problem. Its has 3 values: a) critical - completely non-operational or some essential functionality is missing. b) serious - not working properly or significant functionality is missing. c) non-critical - working in general, but lacks features, does something wrong, or doesn't match its documentation. 2.2 Priority - How soon the problem report submitter requires a solution. It has 3 values: a) high - A solution is needed as soon as possible. b) medium - The problem should be solved in the next release. c) low - The problem should be solved in a future release. 2.3 Class - The class of a problem report can be one of the following. It has 4 values: sw-bug - A general software problem. doc-bug - A problem with the manual pages or other documentation. change-request - A request for a change from existing behavior that is not a bug support - A support problem or question. And each bug report goes through a couple of stages: 3.1 open - The initial state of a Problem Report. 3.2 analyzed - The responsible person has analyzed the problem. 3.3 feedback - The problem has been solved, and the submitter has been given a patch or other fix. 3.4 pending-pullups - The problem has been confirmed as being solved in -current and is waiting for pullups to the appropriate active branches. 3.5 suspended - Work on the problem has been postponed. 3.6 dead - Work on the problem has been permanently abandoned. 3.7 closed - A Problem Report is closed. IRC and SILC: NetBSD uses IRC and SILC as a place where people can ask questions like : what does this do? how can I fix it? Now , the system is support to work like this : You ask a question => You get an answer But in reality ( as it is with most things ) you dont get always what you want : You ask a question => Not a specific answer => Nobody answers => Answer is somewhat innacurate and incorrect => Nobody has time to answer you => The asnwer arrives too late , and looses its purpose There are 3 channels where you can post you questins regarding your software problems : 1. #netbsd-code -( sofware discussions mainly in association with the google code in tasks) 2. #netbsd - ( the main topic where people go and talk about the products) 3. #pkgsrc - ( mostl of the time it's empty , its a place for developers ) (pkgsrc is a framework for building third-party software on NetBSD and other UNIX-like systems, currently containing over 12000 packages) For SILC only one: 1. #netbsd ( for secure chats as it says in their website ) Blogs,Wikies: 1. In their blog NetBSD informs people on how the product is evolving , the changes , and up and coming events. Its like the newspaper of the company, where they publish the news. There they annouce the new releases and the new implementations into their product. 2. In their wiki NetBSD you can make a page , and they will help you build it.It is currently in a prerelease state, but there you (the user) will be able to make pages to make it more long-term stabile.There are also a couple of guides and turorials on how you can install their product, burn CDC's and other cool things.There is a section in which you can see some of their projects like the google code-in, which has my assignment suggested there and explained to details :).