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Date:      Sun, 14 Jul 2024 15:58:34 +0200
From:      Andrea Venturoli <ml@netfence.it>
To:        pmc@citylink.dinoex.sub.org
Cc:        stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Change to FreeBSD release scheduling etc.
Message-ID:  <0f3ac4f8-e5ee-4ac4-a7c2-793035d9cde9@netfence.it>
In-Reply-To: <ZpPCADUpmCFHNa49@disp.intra.daemon.contact>
References:  <ZpPCADUpmCFHNa49@disp.intra.daemon.contact>

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On 7/14/24 14:18, Peter wrote:

Hello.

First off, please bear in mind that I'm not being polemic.



>    there was recently a message from Colin Percival, concerning the
> release schedule.

That message was confusing to me: then I realized had I probably read it 
too hastily.
It talks about "a release every 3 months" and that alarmed me a lot: 
that, along with "the support duration for individual point releases" 
remaining until "next point release + 3 months" would basically mean 
"upgrade every 3 months", which is infeasible in many situations.
However, when I looked at the schedule at the end of the mail, I saw 
that those 3 months alternate between major releases, so what I thought 
doesn't hold.
It's actually 6 months.
Personally I still find it acceptable to upgrade every 6 months (not 
optimal, but mostly acceptable).



> A new release is a rough time. For some 2-3 months, issues do pop
> up... Up to now that would then give another 9 months...

I agree with that: needing to upgrade once a years instead of twice 
would be a lot better.

Of course there are also reasons that make me say the new schedule is in 
some way a good news, but IMVHO they don't balance the work that 
sysadmins are expeced to endure.



> Thinking about what could be done for remedy, what comes to my mind
> most easily is, simply support two most recent releases, so people
> get the option to skip each other upgrade.

That or some LTS version, like we had in the past.
Unfortunately this was debated a lot already and I don't have any hope 
thereof.



I'm glad to hear someone else is having my same concerns.
Currently this issues are on hold here, but soon we'll have to think 
about what to do.
Try and cope (and convince customers to pay for more work)?
Try and maintain our own branches with backported security fixes (with 
the added difficulties for the port tree)?
Move to another OS (still unlikely after how much was invested, but this 
is another straw)?

I'd be happy to hear if others have any idea or what they plan to do.



  bye & Thanks
	av.



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