Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 11:05:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@phone.net> To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: [Q] How stable is FreeBSD 3.X ? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9905261052050.80146-100000@guru.phone.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9905261327150.15724-100000@rio.i-plus.net>
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On Wed, 26 May 1999, Troy Settle wrote: > On Wed, 26 May 1999, Mike Meyer wrote: > If Sun does a "patch this, patch that, patch the next thing" sort of game, > I'm glad I've never had to admin one. > > Sounds as bad as linux: > > Patch this, but only after you've upgraded that. Before that, > however, you need to reinstall foo, and of course bar which foo > depends on. etc. etc. etc. Well, I've never used a commercial Linux system, but Sun's isn't quite that bad. Patches seldom depend on other patches (though, as was pointed out elsewhere, they do sometimes collide). Products may depend on patches - but you just have one level things to deal with. The real win is the ports system. No longer "Get package X. Now go get Y, Z and W. Install Y and Z, then get M & N and install those. Now install W. Finally install X", but "cd /usr/ports/stuff/X; make install" (and sometimes curse because it's broken). This has been quite accurately describe as a sysadmins wet dream. Now, if only it had a hook to apply local patches, so I could put the Python & PostGreSQL modules in the apache build... > With FreeBSD: > > cd /usr/src > cvsup supfile > make buildworld && make installworld && reboot ... find machine dead, reboot from fixit disk, resup, ... :-) > > I'd expect installing a service pack to be a lot more painfull than > > installing a patch, much as installing an application on Windows 9x is > > a lot more painfull than doing so on a Unix box (Does WNT require a > > system reboot on every application install like Windows 9x?). > Windows is braindamaged beyond repair. You don't *need* to reboot after > sneezing, but it is reccomended. Which goes along with reinstalling to cure anything. But what about WNT? > All in all, it's a pretty nice development structure compared to what I > know of other vendors. It's different. Which is causes people to get confused about what to expect. > > Do any of the commercial FreeBSD support organizations run a seperate > > branch and bundle patches up for their customers? > > Like what Red Hat does for Linux? No Thank You. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it's not for everybody. I can see that a commercial ISP might prefer a system where they fed someone else money, and got 1) security patches, and 2) fixes for bugs they encountered. It certainly makes pointy-haired managers happy if they can spend money on something like that. My first reaction on dealing with a Unix that came without source was to compare it to castration. I'm glad the world has gotten back to the state where I can run a Unix with source without handing over an ungodly amount of money, my firstborn child, or both (Jordan, did you sign that thing Sun wanted us to sign to look at their sources?) My thanks to the good folks of CSRG (and others I probably don't know) for making that happen, and the FreeBSD developers for continuing to improve it. <mike To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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