FreeBSD 5.2.1 RC Ready For Getting

MobyTurbo writes "FreeBSD 5.2.1 RC is now available, and now can be downloaded from the FreeBSD site and mirrors, or if you are currently running FreeBSD 5.2 (or for that matter some earlier versions) you can simply cvsup to it. The upcoming 5.2.1 release should fix a number of outstanding bugs in the 5.2 release, and this is a chance to make sure those bugs get fixed!"

Portage

[Gunfighter]

Given Gentoo's similarities to FreeBSD (i.e. provide the 'recipies' and compile from source), I've always wondered why the Gentoo project didn't use a BSD CVSup system (for the unwashed, the tree is updated using rsync). What are the technical advantages/disadvantages/differences between Portage and BSD's Ports?

Honest question

[4lex]

I would like to test kernels from time to time, as I test linux distros. Apart from [debian.org] Debian [debian.org], what is the state of bulding familiar systems (with familiar package management, etc) on different kernels, e.g. FreeBSD?

Is there any possibility to get a Debian-like (or Mandrake-like, why not?) experience with non-linux kernels? I would certainly give them a try... Or are there FreeBSD live-CDs with a hardware auto-recognition comparable with that of knoppix? That would be a nice way to try, too :)

I for one am very excited about 5.*

[0xfc]

I am sure many users of FreeBSD who own computers with multiple processors are eagerly waiting to switch around 5.3. I know I am drooling over better performance but patience is the key. After reading that pdf on the new ULE scheduler, I became even more excited by all the hard work put in by the FreeBSD team. I am still a user of 3.x and mostly 4.x with one 5.x box. I cannot be more pleased with this operating system's stability since 3.4. Two hundred day uptimes are taken for granted with FreeBSD users. Also in 5.x perl was removed! thank you for getting that mess out of the base install. One always had to upgrade it anyway for recent software like spamassassin. Keep putting the FreeBSD stories on slashdot editors, because isp admins run it.

Re:I was a Linux user considering FreeBSD...

[andih8u]

And yes, the my OS is better war is the technological equivalent of standing on the playground screaming "my dad can beat up your dad!" Some OS' do things better than others. Don't see why everyone has to get in a bitching contest about them all the time.

Re:CVS must die

[yanestra]

Because CVS is bad and must die, so everything that is based on CVS must die too.

rsync'ing in Portage is not hardcoded to use CVS - it can sync trees originated/exported from any other versioning system too.

Yes, but the mechanism of rsync treats the data like a black box (i.e. doesn't assume anything), while cvsup knows the structure of cvs file and therefore is faster and more economic.

Errm, I have a read a lot of messages saying that CVS must die, more or less recently. I have the impression that most of them people writing so are non-programmers or have never used cvs themselves.

Personally, I see some deficiencies with it, but there is no good reason to abandon cvs. It works, and it works reliably, and that is indeed something you can't say about all existing versioning systems...

Re:I for one am very excited about 5.*

[Eraser_]

Two hundred day uptimes are taken for granted with FreeBSD users.

I chuckled when I read that, because when I went to upgrade my workstation to 5.2 I did a quick check of the uptime first, almost 200 days. It made me sit back and think "Gee, I never did have to reboot my computer, did I..."

Checking my 4.x server whenever I thought it needed an upgrade brought about even higher uptimes, generally regulated by central power failure +90minutes until the UPS gave up and the system shut itself down. The only race my FreeBSD boxes are given for uptime is by the Solaris computer next to it.

I wouldn't reccomend it for high load server applications though. What with it dying and all.