From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 25 11:45:04 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E2F9D1065686 for ; Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:45:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from mail.potentialtech.com (internet.potentialtech.com [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BEE828FC24 for ; Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:45:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from vanquish.ws.pitbpa0.priv.collaborativefusion.com (pr40.pitbpa0.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.202]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id B17A3EBC0A; Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:45:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:44:18 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: prad Message-Id: <20080625074418.155e9824.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <20080624225958.10007934@gom.home> References: <20080624225958.10007934@gom.home> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.8 (GTK+ 2.12.9; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: why an old operating system 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: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:45:05 -0000 In response to prad : > in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd > compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent > us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see > that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was > going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 > > why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? It's possible that they have not yet vetted their hardware against the new OS. i.e. it's a quality control thing. At work, we get our hardware from Dell, which doesn't support FreeBSD so we have to do our compatibility assurance in-house. It's a lot of work. We're in the process of moving systems from 6.2 to 6.3 at this time, but we only just got the oldest of our servers off the 5.X branch a month ago. I don't expect we'll be moving to 7.X until early 2009, based on how long it takes us to assure it works in all the ways we need it to (although a few non-critical systems, like my workstation, are already running 7.X) Can't speak for the vendor you mention, but that would be my guess. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com