Productivity with FBSD, or: "portupgrade" vs. virus scans....

[JJ]

Hello Kevin (and other desktop users)

:If you're a desktop FBSD user:
:
:How do you keep up with ports?

I've been using FreeBSD as my main desktop since 4.0.
While having morning coffee, reading the news, I browse the mailing
list,  http://docs.freebsd.org/mail/current/ ,
paying attention to ports@ ports-bugs@ and questions at .
Daily, I check portaudit -Fa to see if there's any security issues.
About once a week I'll cvsup just to keep my tree sync'd with the
main, then I check with UPDATING,
and run this script in the ports that have an update availible,

#!/bin/sh
# Much love Min1ster on CJ's for the scripting!
# Replace -depends- with -run- if you wish to check it's run depends.
#
for i in `make pretty-print-build-depends-list | awk -F\" '{print $2 }'`
do
hasit=`pkg_info -E $i`
if [ -z $hasit ]; then
echo "$i is not installed"
else
:
fi
done

Then I decide if A) there's an issue that needs fixing, and B) if a
new feature I need is there.
If it's security related, I update.  If there's nothing pressing, I
put off updating for a day or two
to read the mailing lists, to see if there's any reports of issues.

:
:    *Do you have (or have you, at some time, had) much trouble?

A few times, but that's usually because A) I didn't read UPDATING
closely enough, B) rushed into a version bump,
C) did something stupid.
:
:    *If you have trouble, do you accept it as a "cost" of using FreeBSD?

Trouble updating something is always a "cost", I've ruined WindowsXP
with SP2 installs, that I counted as the
"cost" of updating.  To me, software, like people, aren't perfect, and
at times there will be mistakes.

:
:How often do you upgrade your ports/packages?
On my main workstation, when I need a new feature/security patch.  On
my test machine,
(quad boot, winXP, FBSD, Debian ETCH, and win98) if there's an update,
I apply it, but that machine gets a fresh
install every few weeks/months.

:
:Any suggestions on what I might do differently?
:
:    *Should I quit updating FBSD except for major point releases?
:
:    *Should we upgrade the server-type ports and leave the desktop apps
:alone when we get a "stable" configuration there?
:
:    *How dangerous is it to be using outdated ports (particularly the
:servers)?

As long as there's no known security issues, there's no problems what-so-ever.
Seems to me, -RELEASE and pkg's would be your best bet, along with
avoiding the "urge"
to update whenever there's a new version, unless it's needed.

Hope this helps,
Jimmie