Upcoming FreeBSD 5.1 Release Schedule
BSDForums writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering Team has posted the schedule for the Release of FreeBSD 5.1 late spring. FreeBSD-5 stable roadmap, announced earlier, outlines the future of FreeBSD-5 stable releases, specifically 5.1 and 5.2."
Just to make it clear about the -RELEASE -STABLE and -CURRENT branches.
:). Major and minor changes are still being made, and it takes a bit more knowledge and understanding to work around a major change that you are unfamiliar with.
-RELEASE is the most stable of the three. Only major problems are fixed in this branch such as security issues. This branch really does not change much at all if at all. Of the three branches, this is the one you want to use for production machines.
-STABLE is the 2nd most stable, even though it's name confuses people. It is the development branch between releases. After a release, the -STABLE branch is opened and new features are added and new bugs are fixed. This branch will become the next -RELEASE. The changes are usually very mild but there can be problems.
-CURRENT is where all the development for the next _major_ version is done and it is the least stable. Major changes are made and it might not compile at all for extended periods. It also takes a bit more knowhow to get things working as the docs are not always up-to-date.
With 5.X they have decided to not create a -STABLE branch so that from my guess they can still make major changes and not get as much complaining
Just my 2 cents.