FreeBSD 6.0-BETA1 Available

[Scott Long]

Marc G. Fournier wrote:

> 
> And, for "the stupid question of the day" ... how long before 5.x is no 
> longer supported?  I'm just about to deploy a new server, and was 
> *going* to go with 5.x, but would I be better just skipping 5.x 
> altogether?  Or are there such drastic changes in 6.x that doing so at 
> this time wouldn't be prudent?
> 

There will be a 5.5 release this fall and possibly a 5.6 a few months 
after that.  Per the standard procedure, the security team will support
the branch for 2 years after the final release.  There will likely be
other developers who have an interest in backporting changes to RELENG_5
for some time to come, just as has been done with RELENG_4.  So the 
earliest that RELENG_5 will be de-supported is late 2007.

However

Part of the purpose of moving quickly on to RELENG_6 is so that the 
migration work for users from 5.x to 6.x is very small.  6.x is really
just an evolutionary step from 5.x, not the life-altering revolutionary 
step that 4.x->5.x was.  It should be quite easy to deploy and maintain
5.x and 6.x machines side-by-side and migrate them as the need arises.
We don't want people to be stranded on RELENG_5 like they were with
RELENG_4.  6.x offers everything of 5.x, but with better performance
and (hopefully) better stability.  If you're thinking about evaluating
5.x, give 6.0 a try also.

Scott