5.0 newbies: FreeBSD's future [was: Re: Tracking -CURRENT]

[Brad Knowles]

At 4:00 PM -0700 2003/04/30, Lucky Green wrote:

>  CURRENT Regulars:
>
>  The FreeBSD release cycle is presently in a somewhat unusual situation
>  that I suspect may not have been taken into consideration when the
>  section in the Handbook stating that those running -current should read
>  both -current and -cvs* was established. The present status may be less
>  obvious to regular users and readers of -current as it is to those who
>  have begun running -current recently. Here is what is going on:

	Are you writing this as a member of -core?  Is this the official 
policy of the FreeBSD project?

>  Early-adopters are trying 5.0-RELEASE. It tends to soon become clear to
>  them that 5.0-RELEASE does not meet their expectations for stability.

	Not surprising.  But this is not -STABLE, so if they want to try 
5.x, they need to be willing to read and follow the -current mailing 
list, and they should be willing to demonstrate the proper use of the 
appropriate search tools and archives of -current and -cvs, before 
posting to this list with a problem.


	Myself, I still have hopes to be an early adopter of 5.x and to 
start running it on one or more of my machines, and to try to thrash 
it out as best I can.  I am not currently subscribed to the -cvs 
mailing list, but I'm reasonably confident that I can properly use 
the search tools and archives before posting with a problem.

>  These 5.0 early adopters, who may not be part of the usual community
>  reading -current, are right now between a rock and hard place. They
>  aren't FreeBSD developers, they had never intended to sign up for
>  running the HEAD, they signed up for -current after realizing that there
>  was no help to be had on -stable, and they can't reasonably be expected
>  to additionally start reading the cvs mailing lists.

	Personally, I don't expect them to read the -cvs mailing lists. 
I do expect that they should be able to use the search tools and 
archives of the -current and -cvs mailing lists.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

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