Upcoming Releases

[Doug Hardie]

> On 5 March 2016, at 09:17, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 4 Mar 2016 16:58:20 -0800, Doug Hardie wrote:
>> I am running a number of 9.3 systems and am planning the next
>> system update for them.  As my client schedules have evolved,
>> it now turns out that about the only time I will be able to
>> bring them down for an update will be in June 2016.  I suspect
>> the next available time will be in June 2017.
> 
> Your maintenance schedule is out of sync with the FreeBSD release
> schedule. :-)

Yes - but unfortunately I would have to change the schedules for a number of schools to change my maintenance schedule.  I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future.

> 
> 
> 
>> The release schedules indicate that 10.3 will be out by this
>> June but 11.0 will not.  Back when 10.0 arrived, I decided to
>> skip it as there were issues that would require rework of my
>> applications both for 10 and then again for 11.  Unfortunately,
>> I didn't bother to document those and my memory of the specific
>> issues is long gone.
> 
> In this case, there's a nice mechanism that let's you keep your
> installed applications running without modification: Install the
> compatibility packages (compat9x-[i386|amd64] on 10, and similarly
> on 11). But be careful: It doesn't work all the time! Testing is
> required. And as soon as you start upgrading installed applications,
> the _real_ will start. :-)
> 
> A new installation on a test system, with a snapshot of the data
> required, and with configuration altered as needed, usually is the
> most comfortable way to deal with it. If everything works as intended,
> it's easy to switch over from 9.3 to 10.3 during the maintenance
> period.
> 
> 
> 
>> So I am trying to decide to upgrade to 10.3 this year or wait till
>> next for 11.0. 
> 
> That would leave you with 9.3 being out of support for some time.
> Security updates won't be backported, so in worst case, you'd have
> to do it yourself (if relevant and urgently required). In such a
> case, read the security and announcement mailing lists, and check
> the security audits for all your installed applications.

Yes it would be unsupported, but it would still be the same system it is today and functioning properly.  By and large the security updates have not affected what I have running.  I have been running since FreeBSD 2.7.  I don't see that as a big issue.

> 
> 
> 
>> Is there anywhere a listing of the high level changes from 9 to
>> 10 to 11?  I know about the switch from GCC to Clang but that's
>> all I remember.
> 
> During FreeBSD 9, the transition to pkg and the changes in the ports
> architecture happened, but with 9.3, you're probably already using
> the current versions.
> 
> You can find more information here:
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/releng/index.html
> 
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.3R/announce.html
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.3R/relnotes.html
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.3R/errata.html
> 
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.0R/announce.html
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.0R/relnotes.html
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.0R/errata.html
> 
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.1R/announce.html
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.1R/relnotes.html
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.1R/errata.html
> 
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.2R/announce.html
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.2R/relnotes.html
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.2R/errata.html
> 
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.3R/schedule.html
> 
> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/11.0R/schedule.html

What I was hoping to find was some form of informal, preliminary version of the release notes or announcements for 10.3 and 11.  I seem to recall some sort of discussion of that back when the decision was made to drop bind from the base.  I wasn't able to find it though.

> 
> 
> -- 
> Polytropon
> Magdeburg, Germany
> Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
> Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...

— Doug