FreeBSD 5.4: Is it generally unstable?

[Greg Barniskis]

Peter Jeremy wrote:
...
> 
> IMHO, just reading this mailing list will give you an overly negative
> view of FreeBSD's stability.  My experiences are that FreeBSD 5.4
> using a GENERIC kernel (or something close to it) is quite stable.

Second that. Based on the observable chatter around 5.x problem 
areas since its inception, I opted to keep plugging away with 4.x 
for a long time after it was marked "legacy". However, I also noted 
that over time, most reported problems ended up being solved (always 
a plus when evaluating a system's worthiness ;).

I recently began to seriously hammer on several test boxes with 
RELENG_5 (starting just before 5.4 PRE), and since I started doing 
that I haven't seen a single problem with a variety of mainstream 
Wintel hardware components. We plan to migrate all our 4.x 
production servers over the course of the summer, and are 
considering deploying a number of new ones.

I think that while there have been some outspoken critics of the 5.x 
branch, and there continue to be some minor rough spots, it is 
generally a very good system.

-- 
Greg Barniskis, Computer Systems Integrator
South Central Library System (SCLS)
Library Interchange Network (LINK)
<gregb at scls.lib.wi.us>, (608) 266-6348