Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 14:08:57 +1000 From: Eddie Irvine <eirvine@tpgi.com.au> To: Keith Woodman <keith@lightningweb.com> Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Confusion Message-ID: <36F31F59.FD4E3C28@tpgi.com.au> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990317122136.17016A-100000@nefertiti.lightningweb.com>
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Keith Woodman wrote: > After following the discussion regarding the releases of product. > I am left <as a consumer>, wondering what is considered a sound product to > install on a machine. The frequency of CD releases leaves me wondering. > "well what was wrong in the last version they said was the next > kewlest thing". I installed the 3.0 CD as well, and keeping current caused me a lot more work than I imagined. HOWEVER, I remember that, at the time, the offical STABLE release was 2.8, and there were copious warnings all over the place that 3.0 was very much a work in progress. Now that the 3.1 CD is shipping, the dust has settled quite a bit. FreeBSD is permanently a "work in progress". If you are wondering what CD to buy next, you may be missing out on one of the big strengths of FreeBSD over, say, Red Hat: The ability to keep your machine in sync with the latest STABLE code. You can't really do this by buying CD's - as soon as a CD is released, parts of it are out of date in a few hours or so. Of course, the CD's don't just contain the OS, they also contain the latest versions of ported applications. (The latter is really the only reason I subscribe to the CD distribution). You need to learn about "cvsup" and "make world" and "compiling a custom kernel". It's worth doing, although a little intimidating to begin with. You don't have to be a kernel hacker (at all), but for end users (like me) it is a little easier if you purchase Greg Lehey's "The Complete FreeBSD" text. Eddie. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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