Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:46:20 +0100 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: prad <prad@towardsfreedom.com> Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: understanding freebsd development logic Message-ID: <20090223234620.33a86ea0.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20090223142559.3c5ff9e9@gom.home> References: <20090223142559.3c5ff9e9@gom.home>
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On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:25:59 -0800, prad <prad@towardsfreedom.com> wrote: > is the idea to make each version 'as good as possible' because it > would still be useful for older machines? or is it that later > versions can utilize code from the earlier versions? or is it > something else? I hope it doesn't sound impolite, but FreeBSD's development process isn't tied to hardware evolution (such as it is with nearly any Linux and of course with "Windows"). You can use 7.1 on the same hardware that ran 4.6 before, and you get a gain of speed! When development in 8-CURRENT is considered to be important to the 7.x-branch, it will surely be backportet. Another reason is that there are FreeBSD installations where the maintainer isn't interested in updating to the "bleeding edge" point of development, or simply can't afford this because of security considerations. So it's important to clean bugs from systems that are still in use, these are 6.x and 7.x at the moment, while releases prior to these numbers have already been EOLed, as far as I know. Of course, nothing stops you from *not* updating an existing 5.x installation, especially when it runs sufficiently to your needs. With the ++ of the major release number, often new concepts are introduced which are held back during the ++ of the minor version number of the respective predecessor release, such as, for example, the use of devfs for /dev, or the inclusion of ZFS in the base system. I'm not a developer so I'm not competent enough to go into detail regarding your question. -- Polytropon >From Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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