From owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 3 05:10:03 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9595216A4CE for ; Wed, 3 Dec 2003 05:10:03 -0800 (PST) Received: from reverendtimms.isu.mmu.ac.uk (reverendtimms.isu.mmu.ac.uk [149.170.192.65]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 267CE43FE1 for ; Wed, 3 Dec 2003 05:09:52 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from p.robinson@mmu.ac.uk) Received: from agena.mmu.ac.uk ([149.170.168.195]) by reverendtimms.isu.mmu.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #2) id 1ARWlF-0000NB-00; Wed, 03 Dec 2003 13:09:45 +0000 Received: from MMU-HSS-AGENA/SpoolDir by agena.mmu.ac.uk (Mercury 1.48); 3 Dec 03 13:09:45 +0100 Received: from SpoolDir by MMU-HSS-AGENA (Mercury 1.48); 3 Dec 03 13:09:09 +0100 Received: from PRGMMITER (149.170.101.200) by agena.mmu.ac.uk (Mercury 1.48) with ESMTP; 3 Dec 03 13:09:07 +0100 From: "Paul Robinson" To: "'Dirk Meyer'" , Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 13:09:06 -0000 Message-ID: <002b01c3b99e$a1dc3340$6c01a8c0@MITERDOMAIN> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2627 Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 In-Reply-To: Subject: RE: uptime 4.0 X-BeenThere: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD Evangelism List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 13:10:03 -0000 Dirk Meyer wrote: > Local system status: > 1:59AM up 1212 days, 17:50, 0 users, load averages: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 Now, please don't take this the wrong way Dirk, but I need to use you to make a point here. 1. Uptimes of 1,200 days says wonderful things about FreeBSD. 2. Uptimes of 1,200 days says terrible things about the administrators of those boxes. You were attempting to make point 1, and yes, FreeBSD is very stable and that's all very impressive. However, point 2 needs some consideration. There are good reasons to be keeping track of -STABLE and even more reasons to be keeping track of -RELEASE. You can't have been doing either of those for the last 4 years. That, in my opinion, leaves you vulnerable in a few ways. Of course, the real answer here is to work on a way of allowing for an "upgrade" to happen without re-booting the machine, thereby getting kerenel patching without losing service or uptime. However, until we get to that point, consider patching at least once a quarter to a recent -RELEASE or even better, -STABLE cvsup, and go from there.