Call for FreeBSD status reports

[Charles Ulrich]

seb11 at ciaoweb.it said:
>   At the moment I have two cd sets: FreeBSD 4.9 and 5.0. I found 5.0 quite
> confortable but the main problem is my internet connection: just a 56k
> modem and not a quicker system like ADSL or similar.
>  The problem that arises is due to the live download and build of ports
> (about 7000 ports, as far as I know!).
>
>   I ask, please, hoping for the best:
>
>   1. could be 5.0 a good base to start to join a quite STABLE
>      configuration?

No, if you want to use FreeBSD for anything important, then you want a release
from the STABLE branch. 5.0 is a very old CURRENT release (unstable). 4.9, on
the other hand isn't all that old and is a very reliable. Use that. You can
upgrade to 4.10 if you want the latest STABLE version.

>   2. where I can get (order and buy) tarball ports on cd's and, in such
>      case, what should be the right order to get the appropriate versions,
>      according to the level of patching and evolution of the FreeBSD
>      version (non matter which, 5.0 or different ...) I'll be using?

I don't know offhand where (or even if) you can get a tarball of a recent
ports tree, but you basically have two options:

1) Download a copy of the latest ports tarball from a FreeBSD FTP mirror.
(It's called ports.tar.gz, pretty easy to find). Today it's 24.7MB, which is
not all that difficult to download with a modem as long as you have a bit of
patience.

2) Use the ports tree from 4.9 and cvsup to a newer tree. This isn't as bad as
it sounds, I used to update ports on my modem all the time before I had
broadband. If you update at least once every two or three months this isn't a
problem. You should probably do this since it will almost certainly be a lot
quicker than downloading a brand-new ports tarball.

Finally, I'd like to very gently point out that the freebsd-questions list is
usually a better place for general questions like these.

Good luck,

Charles Ulrich