From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Fri Jan 4 10:35:09 2019 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 761E91424D6A for ; Fri, 4 Jan 2019 10:35:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matthew@FreeBSD.org) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.117.100]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) client-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk", Issuer "Let's Encrypt Authority X3" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D55058A476 for ; Fri, 4 Jan 2019 10:35:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matthew@FreeBSD.org) Received: from leaf.local (unknown [88.202.132.43]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 67207E631 for ; Fri, 4 Jan 2019 10:35:06 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk/67207E631; dkim=none; dkim-atps=neutral Subject: Re: Installing FreeBSD on HP Computer that is using software RAID 5 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20190102222619.c63f20f0.freebsd@edvax.de> <6d05c736-8020-4963-fe29-3e6bd9110fe3@FreeBSD.org> <8a1d9b31-8dc7-753c-8d37-1eed2d0bd06a@FreeBSD.org> From: Matthew Seaman Message-ID: Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2019 10:35:05 +0000 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.14; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.3.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-GB Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: D55058A476 X-Spamd-Bar: -- Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-2.98 / 15.00]; local_wl_from(0.00)[FreeBSD.org]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-0.997,0]; NEURAL_HAM_SHORT(-0.98)[-0.984,0]; ASN(0.00)[asn:20712, ipnet:81.2.64.0/18, country:GB]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000,0] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2019 10:35:09 -0000 On 03/01/2019 19:48, Carmel NY wrote: > Matthew, I think you might have some say in how FreeBSD operates. When > a user downloads a new version of FreeBSD, lets say version 12.0, they > should get that version. Now, if there is a newer version, lets say > version 12.1 of 12.2, or whatever, the user should be presented with > the option of downloading the latest version. Microsoft does something > similar, and I see no reason not to follow that trend. The user should > be given the option. If there is a newer version available, why should > the end user be handicapped? I have less say than you seem to think. Managing the release strategy and support lifetimes of releases is a current topic engaging a deal of core's attention, with a lot of input from the release engineering and security teams (none of which I'm involved with) -- and this is a contentious topic as there are several large blocks of the user base each of which want apparently contradictory things. Satisfying as many users as possible, without putting the project under an insurmountable support load is going to take some time and effort and a lot of discussion to sort out. Now, we don't have, say, something that pops up in the installer that says "I see you're installing version 12.0, but 12.3 is now available" -- it might be something that could be added, but for my part I'd find it pretty irritating having a computer always trying to second guess what I'm trying to do and making me do pointless work dismissing such pop-ups. Also, we do tend to assume the user has basically been keeping up with FreeBSD release news and has been looking at the FreeBSD.org website and FTP archive, where is it pretty obvious what the currently supported versions are. Also you will be prompted by freebsd-update(8) or pkg(8) during normal maintenance activities when your currently installed system is going out of support. Cheers, Matthew