Most desktop users won't want to install this release. FreeBSD 9.1 was released in December 2012, and is the most recent stable release. This 8.4 release is a point release in the still-maintained 8.x series, intended for people currently running 8.3 who for one reason or another don't wish to upgrade to 9.x yet, but who do want an incremental upgrade.
This is what I have been wondering - ever since FBSD came out w/ version 9.x, why are they still coming out w/ versions like 8.3, 8.4...? Does that mean that once they have version 10 out, they will continue to have 3 tracks - 8.6, 9.3 and 10.x?
They typically keep putting out point releases in a series for about five years after the initial.0 release, so at any given time the current and previous one or two series are supported. But they eventually get phased out, e.g. the last 7.x release was 7.4, which came out in early 2011 and stopped being security-managed in early 2013. Wikipedia has a timeline showing the release/support history [wikipedia.org].
One of the reasons for maintaining the legacy branches for a few years is that, within each series, FreeBSD commits to maintaining binary compatibility. So, upgrades are simple & quick and won't break any third-party software you've built yourself from source. There's a bit more description of the difference in section 25.2.3 here [freebsd.org].
only recommended if you need to stay on 8.x (Score:5, Informative)
Most desktop users won't want to install this release. FreeBSD 9.1 was released in December 2012, and is the most recent stable release. This 8.4 release is a point release in the still-maintained 8.x series, intended for people currently running 8.3 who for one reason or another don't wish to upgrade to 9.x yet, but who do want an incremental upgrade.
Why are they doing 8.x? (Score:2)
Re:Why are they doing 8.x? (Score:2)
They typically keep putting out point releases in a series for about five years after the initial .0 release, so at any given time the current and previous one or two series are supported. But they eventually get phased out, e.g. the last 7.x release was 7.4, which came out in early 2011 and stopped being security-managed in early 2013. Wikipedia has a timeline showing the release/support history [wikipedia.org].
One of the reasons for maintaining the legacy branches for a few years is that, within each series, FreeBSD commits to maintaining binary compatibility. So, upgrades are simple & quick and won't break any third-party software you've built yourself from source. There's a bit more description of the difference in section 25.2.3 here [freebsd.org].