Where is FreeBSD going? (View from the trenches)

[Brad Knowles]

At 4:50 PM +0000 2004/01/07, xaphod at freebsd.co.uk wrote:

>  Now, you could say this situation is entirely my fault, I should never
>  have touched a new technology release until it went STABLE.

	I didn't say you shouldn't touch it until then.

	What I meant was that you would be extremely unwise to make any 
attempt to use it in a production-oriented environment, until it has 
become -STABLE.  Perhaps I should have said this a bit better.


	I would encourage everyone who can to take an early look at 
technology such as this at their earliest convenience, but please 
don't try to use it in a production environment until you're ready to 
handle the potential fallout.

>  FreeBSD has always struck me as a conservative project.  Being a
>  conservative SysAdmin I like this.  I like it when changes happen in a
>  careful and considered manner.

	Agreed.

>                                 So even though 5.2 is currently causing
>  me concern, I'm not overly concerned.  I can wait and see what the
>  initial reactions are, then investigate it on my laptop then try it on
>  my desktop.  When I'm 100% happy I can then go live with it on my
>  server.

	That sounds like a wise approach.  ;)

>  However, what worries me is the way 5 seem to have become the battle
>  ground for more internecine conflicts amongst different areas of the
>  FreeBSD community than anything that's gone before.  GEOM, devd, SMP,
>  static root, etc., etc.  Somehow even advocacy is causing conflicts!

	Indeed, that has been an issue.  Old wounds have been re-opened 
during this time.  We need to redouble our efforts to make sure that 
we have all put these things behind us, and work towards the 
betterment of the project as a whole.

>  But I do care that when it arrives 5-STABLE is the best OS that money
>  can't buy.  However, we're all too busy bickering that nobody is having
>  fun any more.

	Well said.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

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