[FreeBSD-Announce] FreeBSD 12.0 end-of-life

[Polytropon]

On Tue, 18 Feb 2020 20:48:51 +0100, Tomasz CEDRO wrote:
> Hello Poly :-)
> 
> On Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 6:31 PM Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
> > On desktop systems, especially those including web browsers
> > and so-called "productivity software" (i. e., office suites),
> > security is far more important, as new approaches to broken
> > software concepts and flaky hardware (yes, I'm looking at
> > you, Mister Intelprocessor!) and their exploitation are
> > being invented very quickly. So the OS has to provide the
> > optimal solutions for mitigation. A faster release cycle
> > surely helps a lot. Newer security flaws probably require
> > methods of dealing with them that cannot be easily ported
> > to older releases, so that's probably the reason why they
> > are not supported that long.
> 
> Sure thing, this is why there are PATCH updates every time they are
> important for kernel and base security / stability / other fixes
> reasons.. also ports provide their own "on demand" updates that are
> separate from base :-)

Exactly! This, in combination with the "testing and refinement"
process HEAD -> STABLE -> RELEASE, allows FreeBSD to be such a
versatile operating system: Not only is it _not_ tied to a
specific kidn of use (a desktop, a server, an appliance), but
one OS can be used for all those cases, and even for "mixed
forms", such as a desktop machine providing server functions;
it also allows you to have _one_ OS and still choose if you
want to follow an experimental, a bleeding-edge, or a rock solid
state of the system. And whatever you choose, you get the full
power of all the applications in the ports collection (wuth a
few restrictions). Maybe I'm just stupid and ignorant, but
what other OS families can offer all this? :-)




-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...