Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 8 Nov 2005 11:24:12 -0800
From:      Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
To:        Dan Rue <drue@therub.org>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Hi - I have question
Message-ID:  <20051108192412.GB1816@flame.pc>
In-Reply-To: <20051108171019.GF27437@therub.org>
References:  <20051108171019.GF27437@therub.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 2005-11-08 11:10, Dan Rue <drue@therub.org> wrote:
> On Tue Nov 1 06:10:18 PST 2005, Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
> >On 2005-10-31 18:42, Nataly Afek <natalya at spiralsolutions.com> wrote:
> >> 1) I'm working with Freebsd 5.3 and i want to know
> >>    when will the support of this version will be finished?
> >
> >5.3-RELEASE was an "early adopter" release.  Sice then, a lot of
> >important bugs have been fixed in the RELENG_5 branch.  You should
> >definitely try updating to a newer version, like 5.4-RELEASE or even
> >5-STABLE, as soon as possible.
>
> This is bad advise.

Maybe.  Then again, if one has problems with 5.3-RELEASE because
of the serious bugs that release has, it may be good advice :)

> 5.3 was not an early adopter release - it was the first
> stable/production release of the 5 branch.

Which was, in my opinion, rushed out a bit just because "it was
about time a release was handed out to the world".  This is why
there are serious bugs in that release.  This is why I
recommended updating to a 5.4-RELEASE or newer, if possible.

> Furthermore, according to http://www.freebsd.org/security/, it
> is support until at least October 31, 2006.  The original
> poster just has to update 5.3 to get the latest security
> updates according to the handbook.

I know :)

This only covers security fixes and any other fixes the security
team is willing to backport though.  Bug fixes that are
potentially useful but do not pose a security threat, may lag a
bit behind.

> And lastly, it is bad advise to upgrade to 5-STABLE.  5-STABLE
> is the 5 development branch, and should not be run unless you
> know better.

Hummm.  If you want to start nit-picking about the meaning of
words, then it's not a very good idea to call "RELENG_5" a
"development branch" either.

Anyway...

> General users should stick with releases.  In this case, the
> original poster's options are stay with 5.3 (and probably grab
> the security updates), upgrade to 5.4, or to 6.0.

Exactly.  I agree 100% with this.  This was exactly what I meant
when I suggested updating to 5.4-RELEASE or 5-STABLE.  It's also
my personal opinion that 5-STABLE is safer for someone who's
accustomed to 5.3-RELEASE.  But that's more a guess than an
absolute certainty right now, since I haven't run any 5.X version
in production machines for a while.

- Giorgos

PS:
Please ignore the useless footer the mail gateway adds to all my posts
while I'm behind this particular network.  The text is entirely useless
and rather annoying when I post to open lists like this one.


This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and
privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient,
please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, do not forward 
this email to any other person, delete this
e-mail and destroy all copies. Any dissemination or use of this
information by a person other than the intended recipient is
unauthorized and may be illegal.



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20051108192412.GB1816>