Where is FreeBSD going?

[Garance A Drosihn]

At 12:42 PM +0100 1/7/04, Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote:
>Paul Robinson <paul at iconoplex.co.uk> writes:
>  > If 5.3, when it arrives, is genuinely production ready, trust
>  > me, the drinks are on me - I will do my absolute best to get
>  > to the next BSDcon and get everybody drunk on an expense
>  > account. If it isn't, well, I'll just have to whisper
>  > "I told you so" quietly somewhere.
>
>I am currently working for an ISP whose infrastructure is
>based 75% on FreeBSD 5.1.  ...
>
>I am about to start in a new job...   I asked them what it
>was like to develop on -CURRENT compared to -STABLE.  Their
>answer: "a relief".

I would add that I've been running almost exclusively on 5.x
for over a year now (except for one machine which I have not
rebooted in over a year...).  There have been some *very*
painful transitions at various times, but once I get past
the transitions the system has been quite stable.  (fwiw,
in my case, I am only running on desktop systems).

So, once we stop making major API/ABI changes and the branch
is truly stable (with a 6.x branch for new cutting-edge
developments), I personally am quite confident that 5.x will
be a stable, production-quality system.  And there are a
number of features in 5.x that I think are tremendous
advantages -- especially for boxes in a production setting.

My guess is you're going to have a large bar tab at the next
BSDcon...  Certainly I hope so!

-- 
Garance Alistair Drosehn            =   gad at gilead.netel.rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer           or  gad at freebsd.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    or  drosih at rpi.edu