Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 17:44:34 +0000 From: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org> To: Jonathon McKitrick <jcm@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> Cc: freebsd-chat <chat@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: reading this list and staying stable Message-ID: <20000208174434.A51073@kilt.nothing-going-on.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0002042357340.21026-100000@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>; from Jonathon McKitrick on Sat, Feb 05, 2000 at 12:02:38AM %2B0000 References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0002042357340.21026-100000@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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On Sat, Feb 05, 2000 at 12:02:38AM +0000, Jonathon McKitrick wrote:
> I recently received this in response to my post. Some names have been
> changed to protect the innocent. Any thoughts?
[ Rest of quote is from whoever mailed you ]
> if it make any difference .. i've been following freebsd via
> the -release cdroms for over 4 years now. i started with ver
> 2.0.5-release and would upgrade every time a new -release made
I'm not quite the same. I've been with FreeBSD since 2.0, and I tend
to upgrade as and when I need to. My main desktop machine runs 3-stable,
my laptop runs 3.2PAO (although I might run current on it after talking
with a few people), and a couple of machines I use at other (very)
inaccessible locations are 2.2.x vintage.
Why upgrade every time there's a new release? Unless there's compelling
functionality you want, like a new driver, you're not forced to upgrade
immediately. The ports tree (bar a few odd ends here and there) will
still work; a 3.3 machine won't suddenly stop working after 3.4 was
released. sendmail isn't going to stop talking to 2.x machines.
This is not the Microsoft world were new releases mean new, and incompatible
protocols, and you have to keep up to interoperate.
> its been ok, untill recently when for some strange reason the
> american contingent has decided freebsd needs to be release
> every five minutes and the bug testing of the prelease versions
> has been shoddy to say the least.
Every 4 to 5 months would be more accurate. And as for bug testing,
how much have you (i.e., the person that sent the e-mail) done?
I freely confess, I do very little testing of releases. I need my
machines to work, because they're critical to the success of my company.
If I'm going to upgrade a machine I set aside a large block of time to do
it, and I check the -stable mailing list for at least a week before, to
make sure that I'm not planning an upgrade when -stable is in a (very rare)
period of instability.
So I don't run bleeding edge code, which makes it difficult to contribute
meaningful bug reports back.
> but i have also started to serioulsy concider moving over to
> openbsd, the quieter, more measured pace of life is more
> predictable and things happen in an orderly manner .. not as it
> seems to be on freebsd where the coffee'd up superexitable
> juveniles seem to be getting release, for the sake of number
> bumping, happy.
Again, you don't have to run the latest and greatest codebase all the
time. Indeed, if you're doing anything mission critical I'd recommend
against it. Just because a new release is out there you don't have to
use it.
N
--
If you want to imagine the future, imagine a tennis shoe stamping
on a penguin's face forever.
--- with apologies to George Orwell
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