I think the problem with NetBSD is that it leaned too far into the whole "of course it runs NetBSD, it even runs on a toaster!" thing. For good or for bad, I think at this point Linux has almost completely eaten that lunch. Vendors and hobbyist community members almost always bring Linux up on new hardware first.<p>As far as BSD mindshare goes I think FreeBSD and OpenBSD have the largest pieces of a small pie. Meanwhile, despite how good their source code is, NetBSD still need to support so much esoteric, obsolete, and rare hardware.<p>None of this leaves enough mindshare for NetBSD to thrive in its niche.