From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Oct 16 18:05:36 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CB64716A403; Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:05:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from questions@totaldiver.net) Received: from Scorpio.totaldiver.net (fl-209-26-20-205.sta.embarqhsd.net [209.26.20.205]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2FD2043D68; Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:05:19 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from questions@totaldiver.net) Received: from WRKSTN210.totaldiver.net ([66.209.36.253]) (authenticated bits=0) by Scorpio.totaldiver.net (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k9GI5ZhP009494; Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:05:37 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from questions@totaldiver.net) Message-Id: <7.0.1.0.0.20061016140214.01938450@totaldiver.net> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 7.0.1.0 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:04:59 -0400 To: Simon Gao , questions@freebsd.org From: Jeff Palmer In-Reply-To: <4533C553.3040609@schrodinger.com> References: <80f4f2b20610151556l18c5adcci4196ab107b6b9907@mail.gmail.com> <4533C553.3040609@schrodinger.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What's so compelling about FreeBSD? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:05:36 -0000 At 01:45 PM 10/16/2006, Simon Gao wrote: >I have a few FreeBSD machine from 4.x to 5.x. I have asked people how to >upgrade them to latest version 6.x cleanly. All I was told is that I >need to wipe them out and reinstall. However, this is not the case with >Gentoo Linux. With Gentoo, version release does not matter that much, >you can always keep your system up to date if you like. Of cause, you >can also choose staying at a certain version. > >Linux supports more devices than FreeBSD, especially new devices. Whoever gave you the 'wipe and reinstall' advice for the 5.x to 6.x migration was insane. 4.x to 6.x is a pain, due to major changes in /dev (5.x and later use devfs, 4.x doesn't) but can still be done. but the 5.6 to 6.x migration is fairly straight forward with a buildworld and a couple minor caveats as noticed in UPDATING. Jeff P.S. while 4.x to 5.x is possible, I'd still personally do a wipe/reinstall. 5.x to 6.x, I'd build world.