NetBSD may have found a new role: The AI-free FOSS OS

Commenters debated NetBSD’s embrace of an “AI-free” stance, with some likening it to Haiku OS’s hard-line approach and praising projects that prioritize a clean, “slop-free” codebase. Some contributors, including one who said the project was theirs, framed the policy as a principled preference for human-authored, carefully curated code and suggested users evaluate project seriousness rather than fixating on specific AI rules. Others pointed out NetBSD’s conservative tooling choices (CVS) as consistent with resisting modern development trends.

Opposing views argued the AI-free position is impractical or counterproductive: one commenter predicted any AI ban will erode as LLMs prove excellent at finding bugs and improving code, and another said AI-assisted developers often produce better results than many senior programmers. Concerns were also raised that the Linux ecosystem could become effectively proprietary if tied to proprietary frontier models, and that recent kernel debates over AI attribution show tensions in practice. The divide centers on principle versus pragmatism - some favor a strict human-only purity for stability and trust, while others expect measured AI tooling to be inevitable and beneficial.