Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 20:09:19 +0200 From: Lawrence.Mayer@dsg.ki.se To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Cc: lawmay@ki.se Subject: Newbie: STABLE vs RELEASE? Message-ID: <3cc05d4f.66f4.0@mbox.ki.se>
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Hi, I've never used Unix before and am planning my first FreeBSD installation. My machine is relatively old (Pentium 133MHz with 64 MB RAM, 1.5GB harddrive) and will be used strictly as a DESKTOP: primarily a latex workstation, secondarily for internet surfing/email. I need XFree 4.2.0, which supports my older video card (XFree 4.1.x does not, and XFree 3.x lacks antialiasing etc). But the precompiled binary of XFree 4.2.0 is only available on the STABLE branch (e.g. branches/4.0-stable/packages), NOT on the RELEASE branch (e.g. releases/i386/4.5-RELEASE/packages). 1. Why are there three separate branches of precompiled applications: CURRENT (branches/-current/packages), STABLE (branches/4.0-stable/packages) and RELEASE (releases/i386/4.5-RELEASE/packages)? How do they differ? In particular: a. Are the CURRENT precompiled applications considered less stable than the STABLE ones, which are in turn less stable than the RELEASE ones? b. Were the CURRENT precompiled applications compiled against FreeBSD CURRENT? Likewise, were the STABLE precompiled applications compiled against FreeBSD STABLE, and the RELEASE applications against FreeBSD RELEASE? 2. If the answer to (1b) above is "yes", should I run the same branch of FreeBSD that my precompiled applications were compiled against? In particular: a. As someone with no Unix experience whatsoever, I have been advised to start with FreeBSD RELEASE before trying to tackle FreeBSD STABLE. But what if I need precompiled applications (such as XFree 4.2.0), which are not available on the RELEASE branch (releases/i386/4.5-RELEASE/packages) but only on the STABLE branch (branches/4.0-stable/packages)? Does that mean that I should install FreeBSD STABLE after all? b. If I do install FreeBSD STABLE due to (2a) above, should I obtain ALL of my precompiled applications from the STABLE branch (branches/4.0-stable/packages), even if some of them are also available on the RELEASE branch (releases/i386/4.5-RELEASE/packages)? I have dug through the FreeBSD documentation looking for answers to (2). The closest I could find was the following WARNING: While it is possible to update only parts of your source tree, the only supported update procedure is to update the entire tree and recompile both userland (i.e., all the programs that run in user space, such as those in /bin and /sbin) and kernel sources. Updating only part of your source tree, only the kernel, or only userland will often result in problems. These problems may range from compile errors to kernel panics or data corruption. (doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/synching.html) 3. Does this quote have any relevance to (2) above? 4. The reason why I have been looking at precompiled applications is that my machine is relatively slow (Pentium 133MHz with 64 MB RAM, 1.5GB harddrive). Am I correct in assuming that large applications like XFree 4.2.0, KDE 3.0, Emacs 21.x, etc would take forever to compile on that machine? 5. What about compiling the kernel? Would that also take forever on my machine? Should I do it anyway? (E.g because a custom compiled kernel would use less of my meager resources than a precompiled kernel would?) If I do compile my own kernel, do I need to compile (some or all of) my applications as well, or can I continue to use precompiled applications? 6. Would Xfce 3.8.14 be a better choice for my machine than KDE 3.0 (e.g. by consuming less of my meager resources)? 7. If so, (a) would Skipstone be a good choice for browser, or would you recommend another for my machine? (b) Could you recommend an email manager with a user-friendly GUI? I would greatly appreciate your answers and advice on these matters. I am very eager to start using FreeBSD. Greetings, Lawrence Mayer <lawmay@ki.se> Ume=E5, Sweden To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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