Seeking an extended-support O/S similar to FreeBSD

[Adrian Chadd]

On 28 March 2013 14:29, Michael Wayne <freebsd07 at wayne47.com> wrote:
> I'm NOT trying to start a flame war here. I'm trying to find a
> viable solution to a very frustrating, real problem.
>
> It's clear that FreeBSD has absolutely no interest in maintaining
> an extended maintainence release version of the O/S. The high
> resource commitment required to keep up with the current incessant
> FreeBSD release process is beyond quite a number of people. I'm at
> the point of admitting that FreeBSD is simply too much work for us
> to continue to use.

Well, the open source project as a whole doesn't have the resources to do this.

I think the general consensus is "it'd be nice if a commercial company
came up and do this."

> So, I'm wondering if anyone reading the list is aware of a viable
> alternative. I'm seeking a BSD-based O/S that is designed to be
> installed in a server environment and not ever get any feature
> upgrades or require any noticable additional resources, only security
> fixes for the O/S and ports.

I suggest asking ixSystems and looking at PC-BSD. There have been
mumblings about a commerically supported PC-BSD distribution. Which is
FreeBSD plus their testing and management and install stuff, along
with what I hope is some commercial support if you need it.

> While this concept is clearly in total opposition to the philosophy
> of the FreeBSD team, I'm hoping that some other, smaller project
> might exist to fill this need.

It's actually in line with our philosophy. If people are willing to
pay for it, then grab a company to do it. :)



Adrian