[HEADSUP] pkg(8) is now the only package management tool

[David Chisnall]

On 2 Sep 2014, at 12:47, Michelle Sullivan <michelle at sorbs.net> wrote:

> I'm not happy that the EOL was
> not actually an EOL and it was actually a deadline.

I'm not sure what you think the difference is.  The EOL says 'the FreeBSD project no longer supports this configuration'.  If you are not relying on us for support (i.e. using an old or forked ports tree, or building your own packages), then things will continue to work.  If you are expecting (unpaid, volunteer) support from the project in the form of packages and a useable ports tree, then you need to use a supported configuration.

If being able to use the ports tree without installing pkg(8) is sufficiently valuable to you, then I can put you in touch with some companies that will backport things to a copy of the ports tree for your use (although the price tag will scale with the number of ports that you want to support).

If, however, your complaint is that it's hard to get new software certified for your system *then this change has absolutely no effect on you!*  If you're not worried about upgrading ports at all, then you can just stick with the ports tree version from the time of your release.  If you're able to upgrade ports, then upgrading the pkg port should not be an issue.

David