Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 14:37:49 -0400 From: culverk@yumyumyum.org To: "Leonard, Harry" <Harry.Leonard@az.ngb.army.mil> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Questions about FreeBSD Versions Message-ID: <1063132669.5944b88889359@mailhub.yumyumyum.org> In-Reply-To: <2F335745DF2B9D409FB4D2BAE67F178822562C@az-04010-exch02.az.ngb.army.mil> References: <2F335745DF2B9D409FB4D2BAE67F178822562C@az-04010-exch02.az.ngb.army.mil>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Quoting "Leonard, Harry" <Harry.Leonard@az.ngb.army.mil>: > Hello FreeBSD, > > My name is Harry Leonard and I'm very interested in using FreeBSD. I work > in a small shop, outside of Flagstaff, Arizona for the State of Arizona, in > a half Microsoft, half open source environment. I'm the resident programmer > and I've used Perl/PHP/MySQL here for almost four years. My boss has set up > servers running OpenBSD and I get to use them creating our website and > running intranet applications. My problem now is that my boss is in Iraq > and we're in need of a new server or two. > > I've researched the subject and have found myself getting a little squeamish > with the thought of installing/tweaking an OpenBSD box. FreeBSD seemed like > the next viable option and I did get a thumbs up from my boss. I also saw a > segment on TechTv's Screen Savers which gave me the confidence that I could > pull this off. I started looking at versions and decided to purchase the > latest and greatest. > > I bought the four disk set of FreeBSD 5.0 w/ the handbook and thought I was > on a roll. Surely, I installed it several times before I got it right and > then I began to run into problems and loose some confidence. My problems > started with the installation of Apache. I'm going back after it today > though and I hope that I'll have some success. Yes, I am a newbie but a > driven one. I very much want to have two FreeBSD boxes in-house and I am a > hard one to quit. I did quit on FreeBSD 5.0 though and I also think this is > where my troubles really began. > > I figured that I would do some more reading and found that 5.0 might not be > the best version for newbie's (in cases of trouble). So, I figured that I > would go to FreeBSD 5.1. A newer version shouldn't hurt huh? Well, I think > something went awry in the download and I never got this version to work > correctly for me either. Well, now I'm figuring that I'll just move > backwards to FreeBSD 4.8 Stable and this will just alleviate all my > problems. This has not worked yet for me either and my confidence is > further eroding. But, my tenacity is still in there and I'd rather go down > in flames than let my office mate turn this office into a full Microsoft > shop and me running Apache/PHP/MySQL on an IIS box. My boss expressed his > dismay of this happening and I told him I would not let him down. Newbie I > may be but I'm not a quitter. > > This email is about: Which version of FreeBSD should I be using for > production? I need to set up an in-house web server for our website and > another box for my few intranet applications. In the near future I might > have the opportunity to create a firewall box and I really need to get on > top of things. Today, I'll go back to FreeBSD 5.0 (which I've had the most > success with) and read the errata over again and make sure there's nothing > that I'm missing. I'd appreciate it if you could give me a stamp of > approval on which version I can/should use for my small production needs. > Sorry, if I've gotten a little windy with my explanation but I wanted to > give you some background. I also Thank You for reading this email and for > any help that you can provide me in this matter. Please let me know what > you think? > Most likely you should use FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE for any kind of production server. I run FreeBSD 5.x-CURRENT on all of my machines without a problem (with apache, mysql, php, etc...) but I still don't recommend that people do that. What kind of problems are you having? I doubt that your problems are FreeBSD specific... they are probably more specific to the server apps you are running (apache, etc...). Ken
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?1063132669.5944b88889359>