From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 12 01:48:40 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 854AF16A4CE for ; Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:48:40 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp819.mail.sc5.yahoo.com (smtp819.mail.sc5.yahoo.com [66.163.170.5]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 2394F43D54 for ; Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:48:40 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sp0ng3b0b@sbcglobal.net) Received: from unknown (HELO ?10.1.1.25?) (joe?stevensen@69.107.45.115 with plain) by smtp819.mail.sc5.yahoo.com with SMTP; 12 Jan 2005 01:48:40 -0000 Message-ID: <41E481F9.7080508@sbcglobal.net> Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 17:48:41 -0800 From: sp0ng3b0b User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Paul Schmehl References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Which OS should we use? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:48:40 -0000 Paul Schmehl wrote: > We're getting ready to create some new servers from scratch > (format/install). We've been using 4.9 and 4.10 for a while now with no > problems. We've got one 5.3 box setup for test purposes. > > On this list I have seen comments about instability issues in 5.3. > These servers need to be stable. Should we install 4.10/11? Or move up > to 5.3? I'm in the same boat. I've had mixed results with 5.3. I advise you to test it out for your needs. If your hardware and apps play well together, go for it. As a web, mysql and samba server, I've had no problems. As an IDS running snort, I've had problems with the nge driver. I need these NICs for monitoring gigabit links. Simply "uping" the interface caused FreeBSD to panic. I posted here and opened a problem report, but got no replies. FWIW, I never saw a kernel panic until I used 5.3, but I do acknowledge that the technology added is new and results may very. In the end, I still use FreeBSD 5.3 for servers when I can. I think the new SMP stuff is great. I don't like using the 4.x line since its doomed soon. ;) I also know that Yahoo operates a lot of FreeBSD servers. I would love to hear their results if they are testing 5.3. One last comment, I must admit that in order to get something stable for my IDSs, I installed Gentoo.