From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 7 06:12:17 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: chat@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B699416A400 for ; Wed, 7 Feb 2007 06:12:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jimmiejaz@gmail.com) Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com (ug-out-1314.google.com [66.249.92.170]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 528E113C442 for ; Wed, 7 Feb 2007 06:12:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jimmiejaz@gmail.com) Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id o2so94510uge for ; Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:12:16 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:mime-version:content-type; b=XETnFItY1hmfLsGvQIgiWe2Z3bAQteiW0HgZmW5OSCBfjFzbtpvxNG8hBluI9U6EPnZji4XsG4MGw9m0h+orSwA5PHRQmGtf91i0rJYyldal/12ypNo/ih48nqQalA0C3MjMuAAqt/F4WF4zONdwQWOaAU/5uROnS9X6DAsRCb4= Received: by 10.78.165.16 with SMTP id n16mr136293hue.1170800583549; Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:23:03 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.49.10.15 with HTTP; Tue, 6 Feb 2007 14:23:03 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <7e148fb90702061423yfe9c02and915206c04dcd5f0@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 17:23:03 -0500 From: JJ To: chat@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Subject: RE: Productivity with FBSD, or: "portupgrade" vs. virus scans.... X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:12:17 -0000 Hello Kevin (and other desktop users) :If you're a desktop FBSD user: : :How do you keep up with ports? I've been using FreeBSD as my main desktop since 4.0. While having morning coffee, reading the news, I browse the mailing list, http://docs.freebsd.org/mail/current/ , paying attention to ports@ ports-bugs@ and questions@. Daily, I check portaudit -Fa to see if there's any security issues. About once a week I'll cvsup just to keep my tree sync'd with the main, then I check with UPDATING, and run this script in the ports that have an update availible, #!/bin/sh # Much love Min1ster on CJ's for the scripting! # Replace -depends- with -run- if you wish to check it's run depends. # for i in `make pretty-print-build-depends-list | awk -F\" '{print $2 }'` do hasit=`pkg_info -E $i` if [ -z $hasit ]; then echo "$i is not installed" else : fi done Then I decide if A) there's an issue that needs fixing, and B) if a new feature I need is there. If it's security related, I update. If there's nothing pressing, I put off updating for a day or two to read the mailing lists, to see if there's any reports of issues. : : *Do you have (or have you, at some time, had) much trouble? A few times, but that's usually because A) I didn't read UPDATING closely enough, B) rushed into a version bump, C) did something stupid. : : *If you have trouble, do you accept it as a "cost" of using FreeBSD? Trouble updating something is always a "cost", I've ruined WindowsXP with SP2 installs, that I counted as the "cost" of updating. To me, software, like people, aren't perfect, and at times there will be mistakes. : :How often do you upgrade your ports/packages? On my main workstation, when I need a new feature/security patch. On my test machine, (quad boot, winXP, FBSD, Debian ETCH, and win98) if there's an update, I apply it, but that machine gets a fresh install every few weeks/months. : :Any suggestions on what I might do differently? : : *Should I quit updating FBSD except for major point releases? : : *Should we upgrade the server-type ports and leave the desktop apps :alone when we get a "stable" configuration there? : : *How dangerous is it to be using outdated ports (particularly the :servers)? As long as there's no known security issues, there's no problems what-so-ever. Seems to me, -RELEASE and pkg's would be your best bet, along with avoiding the "urge" to update whenever there's a new version, unless it's needed. Hope this helps, Jimmie