What version of FBSD does Yahoo run?

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of TM4525 at aol.com
> Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2004 10:07 AM
> To: tedm at toybox.placo.com
> Cc: questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: What version of FBSD does Yahoo run?
>
>
> In a message dated 10/9/04 12:56:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> tedm at toybox.placo.com writes:
> >"I just hope that pounding packets through a socket  and
> >timing mySQL selects aren't the entirety of OUR team's arsenal."
>
> >And it's not just this sentence although this is one of the most
> >blatent.  You are using verbage and terminology that clearly sets
> >you in opposition to the rest of us, users and developers, of FreeBSD.
> >If this isn't a challenge you don't know the meaning of the word.
> Maybe you think its a "challenge" because the words have teeth?
>
> Who is "the rest of us" in your estimation?

Anyone who uses FreeBSD.  Anyone who contributes to FreeBSD obviously
has to use it.  And, even people standing on the street and throwing
rocks - if they are doing it with knowledge, such as pointing out
SPECIFIC issues - they are contributing to FreeBSD.

Someone standing out on the sidewalk who has never run a FreeBSD release and
knows little about it, who wants to throw rocks, he's not contributing.

> Those under the thumb of
> wind river, or those of us trying to run small business who would prefer
> not to be bamboozled into using something "new" because you need
> free testers for your code?

Nobody is forcing anyone to use any "new" FreeBSD.  You can use FreeBSD
3.X or FreeBSD 2.X or even FreeBSD 1.X if you can find it, that is.
Many people have CD's of the old FreeBSD versions who will make them
available on the Internet.  You want to run FreeBSD 1.1.5.1?  I have it
on a QIC tape somewhere if you really want to.

> I monitored this list for months,and I never
> once heard any one of "you" tell anyone that 4.x was a better choice
> if running your business with the most efficient current solution was
> your goal.

Why should we?  The instructions that tell you to use FreeBSD 4.X are
right in the release itself!  Haven't you seen this web page:

http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.2.1R/early-adopter.html

I quote:

"the Release Engineering Team <re at FreeBSD.org> specifically discourages
users from updating from older FreeBSD releases to 5.2.1-RELEASE"

These instructions are in every FreeBSD 5.X CD.  Why are you blaming
us if you cannot be bothered to read instructions?

> You don't care about the "freeBSD community",  you care
> about your own agenda, whoever "you" are. If you're not going to be
> honest with the community, then there's going to be a separation of
> "you" with the agenda and "us" with the need for honest answers to
> our questions so that we can run our businesses effectively.
>

OK so now your trying to say there's an "us" out there on the sidewalk
throwing rocks with you.  I got news for you, there ain't no "us" out there.
There's just "you"

I won't deny that some perhaps less-experienced FreeBSD users that
are on the list are coming at it from the Microsoft mentality that
everything older than 3 months is crap, and we all gotta run out there
and buy the latest version of Windows/Office/Crapola software that is
on sale.

But nobody with any real experience who has been working with FreeBSD
for any length of time will tell you to ashcan all your FreeBSD 4.X
servers and go to 5.X immediately.  They might tell you to not run FreeBSD
3.X - if you haven't installed all the security patches, of which there
are an enormous number now.  But there is no reason to abandon an older
FreeBSD 4.X server if it is working fine for you, as long as you keep
whatever portions of it are exposed to the Internet, patched with
current patches.

> I love freeBSD. I have the skills to get my own answers as to the
> suitability of one OS or one version to another. Most people on this
> list don't. So don't steer them to 5.x when you know its not yet ready
> for prime time,  because people rely on you to give good, honest
> answers in order to earn a living.

I don't blindly steer people to FreeBSD 5.X  In fact, officially I
say the following on my website:

http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com/faq/verstouse.html

If someone on-list or via private e-mail asks me about going to 5.X
I will ask them what their needs are and base my reply on that.  If
they tell me they are a small business that needs ONE server and
has an extra PC I will tell them to use 4.X - my book is aimed at
that group. If they are a medium sized business that has 10 or so servers
I will tell them to use 4.X for their most critical stuff but that they
need to start using 5.X on some of their stuff to get up to speed on
it.  And if they are a Yahoo-sized business with programmers on
staff specifically tasked to optimize whatever OS they are running
I will tell them they need to be running all 5.X and they need to
be working closely with the development team members, not me.
And there are mailing lists specifically for that group.

FreeBSD 5.X ain't going to reach prime time if everyone sits around
waiting for it to get to prime time.  Obviously you don't steer
someone who is inexperienced and who only has time for 1 system
and only for the administration of it, not debugging, to 5.X
But if someone does have the experience or wants to have the
experience, and they have multiple systems able to run it (which is
easy enough with Pentium 200's going for under $10 on the used
market these days) then they need to be running 5.X on at least
1 system.

Ted