Fwd: Re: reason 23 why we've moved to linux

[Freddie Cash]

Forgot to reply to list.

Typos and terseness brought to you by the LG G2 running SlimKat.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Freddie Cash" <fjwcash at gmail.com>
Date: Mar 22, 2014 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: reason 23 why we've moved to linux
To: "Randy Bush" <randy at psg.com>
Cc:

On Mar 22, 2014 11:49 AM, "Randy Bush" <randy at psg.com> wrote:
>
> > Honest question, have you been building things from source under
> > debian's ports or are you using their version of "pkg"?
>
> the latter
>
> and i have two 9 systems where i try to use freebsd-update.  also a
> time-consuming rabbit hole leading nowhere pleasant.  e.g.
>
> # freebsd-update upgrade -r 9.2-RELEASE-p3
> Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 5 mirrors found.
> Fetching metadata signature for 9.2-RELEASE from update5.freebsd.org...
done.
> Fetching metadata index... done.
> Inspecting system... done.
>
> The following components of FreeBSD seem to be installed:
> kernel/generic world/base world/doc world/games world/lib32
>
> The following components of FreeBSD do not seem to be installed:
>
> Does this look reasonable (y/n)? y
>
> Fetching metadata signature for 9.2-RELEASE-p3 from
update5.freebsd.org... failed.
> Fetching metadata signature for 9.2-RELEASE-p3 from
update2.freebsd.org... failed.
> Fetching metadata signature for 9.2-RELEASE-p3 from
update3.freebsd.org... failed.
> Fetching metadata signature for 9.2-RELEASE-p3 from
update4.freebsd.org... failed.
> Fetching metadata signature for 9.2-RELEASE-p3 from
update6.freebsd.org... failed.
> No mirrors remaining, giving up.

As a counter-point, I just upgraded 4 systems running different versions of
9.1-STABLE to 9.2-RELEASE-p3 this week. Took only 1 work day to:
  - migrate from single disk to zfs-on-root
  - migrate from gmirror to zfs-on-root
  - create new boot environment
  - rebuild world to get back to "stock"
  - use freebsd-update to get latest updates
  - upgrade pkg
  - upgrade/reinstall all packages

The longest part was rebuilding world to get things to a state where
freebsd-update could work. Everything after that took maybe an hour. I was
quite impressed by how quickly and easily things were updated/installed
using the binary tools.

Once you start using the binary tools and treat the FreeBSD systems like
Debian systems, everything works the same, with the same ease-of-use.

I did the same at home, going from FreeBSD 9.1 to PC-BSD 9.1 to TruOS 9
(rolling release) to PC-BSD 9.2. Didn't have to compile a thing.

The more I use only the binary tools, the more impressed with FreeBSD I
get. And I've been using it since 3.1/4.0 (although I do have 2.2 on CD).

The pkg team have been doing sine wonderful things. Once they stop changing
the config files, things will get even better. :)

Typos and terseness brought to you by the LG G2 running SlimKat.