What version of BSD should I use

[Joshua Lokken]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org 
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Peter Rosa
> Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 9:30 AM
> To: freebsd-questions
> Subject: What version of BSD should I use
> Importance: High
> 
> 
> Hello everybody,
> 
> I have spent a lot of time on FreeBSD.org web pages, but I 
> still can not
> find
> VERY SIMPLE answer for this question:
> what version of FreeBSD should I use ?
> 
> I need system which is VERY STABLE, with as few 
> possibilities to hack as
> possible
> (the best is absolutely closed :-) ), running only named, 
> sendmail, samba,
> apache, php,
> perl, and firewall. It will be used also as a gateway to 
> I-net for small
> company, so it
> MUST be SAFE, STABLE and nice. That is what I want.
> On the other side, it is possible to download FreeBSDs from 
> 4.7 to 5.1.
> 
> Currently, I run 4.3, and I have problems, because there is 
> no milter
> support in sendmail,
> I can not use some commercial SW as it wants higher version 
> etc. But I like
> it...
> 
> I think, older is better, but I will not have support for some new
> technologies.
> And I think, the newest is good, but all new SW has some 
> bugs - meaning it's
> UNSAFE.
> Less bugs = BETTER and SAFER life.
> 
> What is your consideration - what version should I use ?

The latest production release is 4.8, that'd be a good starting
point.  I haven't had any major problems running 4-stable, and
it is, indeed quite stable.  Chapter 21 (I think) in the handbook
covers that a bit.  I haven't taken the time to use 5, however, 
and can't speak for that.  HTH,

Joshua