Possibility for FreeBSD 4.11 Extended Support

[Greg Black]

On 2006-12-22, Peter Jeremy wrote:
> [Not picking on Michael in particular, several people have made
>  similar comments]
> On Fri, 2006-Dec-22 00:15:13 -0500, Michael R. Wayne wrote:
>> >THAT< is why people who run servers, with jails, quotas, ipfw and
>> moderate load keep complaining about 5.X and 6.1 and begging for
>> 4.11 support to be extended.  Just because someone has a few FreeBSD
>> boxes running light loads and not using the features that we NEED
>> does not mean that any the port 4.11 releases to date are stable.
> 
> The FreeBSD Project is a volunteer effort.  It is currently supporting
> 4.11, 5.5, 6.1, preparing to release 6.2 and developing 7.x.  You
> cannot demand that volunteers do anything - they work on FreeBSD because
> they enjoy it.  If your business is relying on FreeBSD 4.11 and you
> do not believe the _free_ support you have been getting is adequate,
> you are always welcome to look through the list at
> http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/consult_bycat.html and find someone
> to provide whatever level of support you want.

This is all good comment.  But I would add that anybody who
claims to have a substantial investment in antique FreeBSD
systems and who thinks it makes sense to whine at the volunteers
in an attempt to get them to do something that they have said
they will not do is being dishonest.  Such an investment is
being managed poorly, probably irresponsibly, if it's not
accompanied by a suitable investment in adequate levels of
support.  And, if you wave money around, there is no shortage of
suitably qualified people who can provide such support.

I would also add that, if these people are experiencing show
stopping problems with 6.2, then they should be contributing to
the process of solving those problems rather than whining about
their "need" for 4.11 support.

For most of us, 6.2 is fine.  In fact, I have 4.2, 4.7, 4.9,
6.0, 6.1 and 6.2 boxes all running at multiple sites and all of
them are just fine.  I update them when there is a reason to,
but since I really like the way 6.2 is shaping up, I might just
move them all to 6.2 over the Oz summer.

Greg