From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 8 00:13:06 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AAB4C16A41C for ; Wed, 8 Jun 2005 00:13:06 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from david@fundamentalit.com) Received: from mail.fundamentalit.com (mail.fundamentalit.com [202.160.128.219]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3FB1F43D5C for ; Wed, 8 Jun 2005 00:13:06 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from david@fundamentalit.com) Received: from [203.206.87.172] (helo=dev) by mail.fundamentalit.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.50) id 1DfoBs-0003w6-9E for freebsd-stable@freebsd.org; Wed, 08 Jun 2005 10:13:04 +1000 From: "David Hogan" To: Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 10:13:16 +1000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.6353 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2527 thread-index: AcVrvt4WFyVZgxESQq6TRfr9BkM33w== Message-Id: <20050608001306.3FB1F43D5C@mx1.FreeBSD.org> Subject: FreeBSD 5.4: Is it generally unstable? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:13:06 -0000 Hi List, First of all, I'm new regarding FreeBSD, But i'm an experienced linux user who's been using the Trustix distribution for the last few years, so please bear with me. In my time using Trustix, and participating in the mailing lists, it has proven an exceptionally stable server distribution. Recently though, I've been playing around with FreeBSD 5.4 on a vmware box, and I'm beginning to think it may be the way forward in the long run. Having observed freebsd-stable@freebsd.org for the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a worrying (to me) amount of traffic regarding kernel panics, general instability etc, and I'm now posting this in the hope that I might obtain perspective on this from some experienced FreeBSD users. In my time with the Trustix lists, I don't think I came across a serious kernel issue that wasn't caused by either a lack of a preinstalled driver or a bad stick of ram. Would you say that this holds true for FreeBSD? I realise that the FreeBSD user base is a much larger one than the Trustix user base, and I could be led to believe that the vast majority of people using 5.4 arent having any problems .. it's just my general impression that "something's up" with the stability of the 5.4 release. If I were to deploy a server right now, would a seasoned FreeBSD user use 4.11 or 5.4? Anyone care to share their thoughts? Cheers, David Hogan