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BSD Operating Systems

No FreeBSD 3.5 On CD From WC/BSDI 14

Posted by Nik from the NP:-Natural-Blues dept.
xlogan writes, "I just received my FreeBSD 4.0 subscription CD in the mail today. According to a memo inside, they will NOT be shipping a 3.5 CD (the last of the 3.X series) and instead sent out this 4.0 CD. 3.5 will be available for FTP download in May." S'true. It was decided that the extended testing period before releasing 4.0 was so effective that the CD sets would continue with the 4.x releases, rather than the 3.x branch. This is contrary to earlier releases (in particular, 3.0). Of course, 3.5 will still be available for download, but if you've got a CD subscription from WC you'll get 4.0.
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No FreeBSD 3.5 On CD From WC/BSDI More

No FreeBSD 3.5 On CD From WC/BSDI

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  • I have not upgraded my machines to 4.0 yet due to not wanting to mess with this kind of stuff until the end of the school semester. But the second that final exams are over - watch out!

    It's funny, though, because I am not worried in the least bit about putting a .0 version of an operating system on my boxes when it is FreeBSD. When it's some unnamed major operating system vendor's brand new operating system (*cough* Windows 2000 *cough*) I like to hang back and let other people blaze the trail because there are plenty of times that I can remember their new OS releases (or even service packs) being pretty unstable until the first set of patches arrived. The only time I ever recall bad things happening with a major update to FreeBSD was when it went from 1.x -> 2.0, and that was largely due to them gutting out huge amounts of tainted code from the codebase and replacing it with unencumbered code.

    So, it's probably not such a big deal that they're just skipping the 3.5 CD's.
  • I am running 4.0 on 4 machines here already and I love it. It is stable as can be and fast. And the feature set is incredible!

    As a side note .... I am evaluating Windows 2k and for the first time a Microsoft OS does not make me want to hurl :)

    -sirket
  • Would it be an overwhelming cost to WC if they were to distribute 3.5 and 4.0 during a .0-transition? Hey, it's just cd's, they cost less than the delivery.

  • seems like they'll be creating an opportunity for smaller companies to sell 3.5... I'm sure many people are not sure about upgrading, or don't plan to right away. Someone with a cd burner and a fast connection could probably do pretty well selling 3.5. Just a thought...

    darren


    Cthulhu for President! [cthulhu.org]
  • Right, I just put 4.0 on a crappy old NEC Pentium 75 and it is running great (so far). Lots of new stuff supported, and the install is a lot smoother. You can also install SSH right from the start which is nice.
  • With the advent of FreeBSD 4 (even at a .0 release), most fresh installs will probably be of the 4.x branch anyway. The CD's are best used for fresh installations.

    Most of the interest in 3.5 will be from those who want to continue tracking 3.x on an existing installation. You can use CD's to do a binary upgrade, but upgrades are far better handled by cvs'ing the source and making world.
  • Someone with a cd burner and a fast connection could probably do pretty well selling 3.5.

    And of course, if that someone realized that he didn't have to download the CD image each time he was going to burn it, a mere CD burner would do the trick. ;-)

  • Chances are CheapBytes [cheapbytes.com] will be all over it. I'd keep my eyes out for 3.5 CDs from them.
  • The release wasn't that important to me, since I CAN download it for my server, but what surprised be was that some packages (enlightenment for one) were actually not on the CD !
  • I just began playing and learning the ropes of fbsd with 3.4 and just got a 4.0 in the mail. I noticed some packages I have become very accustommed to are gone! Where's my VIM?!!!
  • Not all of the packages are on one CD. I don't have the 4.0 CDs (don't laugh), but in the past, as the ports have grown, packages have been spread out across multiple CDs.

    --

  • VIM!? Thats one of the selling points of FreeBSD. It comes standard with good old vi, unimproved =)
  • Perhaps I'm a luddite.

    I was looking forward to a FreeBSD 3.5 CD. I still have systems that are running 2.2.7 (patched for security). I also have a rule that says I have CDs for anything I run (with floppies for the patches).

    I think this really brings out several issues about open source development that are fundamental...
    1) The press for newer better faster (i.e. 4.0) is driven by hacking not stability or consumer (in amateur radio it's called 'appliance' users) users.
    2) BSDI/WC didn't ask us with zillions of systems in production what we would like. We're increasingly irrelevant to the massive hacking hordes. This is less true with Linux; only because IPO fever has struck over there and with BSDI/WC it isn't quite there yet.
    3) 3.x is nearing stagnation, because there is no glory to maintaining it. Just as there is no fix for SMP NetATalk which regularly will panic and cause reboots -- bug killing and back porting are both hard work and very inglorious. You get no fame for "oh I finally killed this bug that impacted 10% of the production systems" but do get fame and commit privs for a new (maybe un-needed, perhaps "cleaner") scheme to do disk I/O or devices or network or ...

    I'm not mad about this, just realistic that this is a social community with it's own value system. It just happens to be a value system that doesn't help those who are trying to *do* things with this O/S.

    Will this get better? I have no idea. There has been some discussion on the FBSD IRC about improved regression testing which will make back porting a little easier and siginicantly improve stability.

    The BSDI purchase means there is an IPO on the horizon which will, at least for a moment, make for improved bug response. I wonder if the BSDI/WC folks know what it means to operations be a 'public company'? Perhaps they really don't care -- IPO, count 181 days and retire.

    One thing's for sure... we're about to find out the brave new ways of BSDI/WC... be they good or be they bad. I wonder if not pressing 3.5 is just the beginning.

  • According to the BSD BOF that was in Chicago this week (4/19), WC/BSDI will put up a way to order FreeBSD 3.5 on CD, IF THERE IS SUFFICIENT INTEREST IN IT. (Interest here is defined as someplace between 500-1000 copies ordered.) So you'll have to go to WC/BSDI _after_ sometime early next week (the people that change the WC/BSDI web site were at Chicago) and opt-in to get on the list to receive this.

    Please DO THIS! :-)

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