Newbie: 4.9 / 5.2.1 / 4.10 ??

[Geoffrey Lane]

I'm fairly familiar with linux and have been running redhat for a few years 
now. I'm looking for something I have more control over and isn't bloated 
with alot of stuff I don't need...
BSD is on the top of my list, there are only a few set backs for me to make 
the switch:

1)	should I download and install the "new technology" releases or use the 4.x
	branch and what are the differences?
2)	How do they differ (new tech/4.9)?
3)	Are new technology (eg. 5.2.x) considered the unstable branch?
4)	Can freebsd use a linux swap space?
5)	What is this geometry bug and can it be fixed  How?

This would at least be dual-boot windows and possibly linux for a little 
familiarity. So this geometry problem has not allowed me to partition the 
disk using linux and windows programs afterwards and it sems to have 
currupted the partition table because there is no visible.

I would appreciate someone's reply to these probably stupid questions
Thanks for your time
Geoff