FreeBSD 5.4: Is it generally unstable?

[Kris Kennaway]

On Wed, Jun 08, 2005 at 10:13:16AM +1000, David Hogan wrote:
> Hi List,
> 
> First of all, I'm new regarding FreeBSD, But i'm an experienced linux user
> who's been using the Trustix distribution for the last few years, so please
> bear with me. In my time using Trustix, and participating in the mailing
> lists, it has proven an exceptionally stable server distribution.
> 
> Recently though, I've been playing around with FreeBSD 5.4 on a vmware box,
> and I'm beginning to think it may be the way forward in the long run. Having
> observed freebsd-stable at freebsd.org for the last couple of weeks, I've
> noticed a worrying (to me) amount of traffic regarding kernel panics,
> general instability etc, and I'm now posting this in the hope that I might
> obtain perspective on this from some experienced FreeBSD users.
> 
> In my time with the Trustix lists, I don't think I came across a serious
> kernel issue that wasn't caused by either a lack of a preinstalled driver or
> a bad stick of ram. Would you say that this holds true for FreeBSD? I
> realise that the FreeBSD user base is a much larger one than the Trustix
> user base, and I could be led to believe that the vast majority of people
> using 5.4 arent having any problems .. it's just my general impression that
> "something's up" with the stability of the 5.4 release.

That's certainly not how I see it.  Of course, you only see reports
from people who experience problems, not from all those who don't.

> If I were to deploy a server right now, would a seasoned FreeBSD
> user use 4.11 or 5.4?

You really want 5.4 unless you have specific reasons to stick with the
older branch.

Kris
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