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FreeBSD 5.3 RC2 Released
ValiantSoul writes "FreeBSD 5.3 Release Candidate 2 was just released. This new RC includes an updated network stack that fixes a bug where the system stops responding when under severe network load, the complete disabling of the ULE scheduler due to instability, and other fixes. Originally the FreeBSD team decided not to release a RC 2 however the fixes in the latest CURRENT were important enough to do so. As long as there are no severe problems with RC 2, this will be the last test release until a final one. See the full announcement on the mailing lists."
Christ - its hardly like it just cost you the price of two DLT tapes to write those ISO images or something.
A spindle of 100 CD-R's costs around £14 here currently... so two blank CD-R's is around 28p, or the cost of a chocolate bar. Sound the bells!
Try writing RC's onto CD-RW's and then when updates come out, wipe them and burn the latest version!
Sheesh.
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
If you're really concerned about the $.20 or the downloading, you should probably just track the branch using CVS until release. Is FreeBSD on 2 CD's now? I thought it was one disk, and one rescure disk.
I've actually given up downloading the entire thing and now just use the mini install cd. For me the first step after setting up a system is always updating the ports tree and installing from ports anyway.
This is just more proof that the folks over at FreeBSD are committed to releasing nothing that's not at-or-near perfect. For sure, nothing will hold the -RELEASE tag unless I'd run it at home if not in a production environment.
Personally, I'm happy that they're more concerned with stability than they are with the release schedual. The bugs in RC1 were pretty severe if not overreaching.
Unlike most Linux distros FreeBSD is really easy to upgrade. Go ahead and install RC1. Updating FreeBSD amounts to:
% cvsup
% make buildworld
% make installworld
% reboot
It's a little more complicated than that, but not much more.
Get the CD and install on a spare machine. BEAT THE HELL OUT OF IT.
If you find a bug you will be a GOD in the eyes of those that want to run 5.3 production-style.
I vote wait untill that release is FULLY READY TO GO OUT THE DOOR. 5.3 is critical to further acceptance of FreeBSD, further commercial funding support, further legitimacy of the platform, and confidence in the developers/Release Engineering team.
If you need it now, run the RC. Unless a TON of people need 5.3 NOW, the developers should feel no pressure to get it out the door. They should feel pressure to get testers to find problems. They should feel pressure to find people that like inflicting damage on a running OS. Find those twisted individuals and give them a RC CD and a keyboard. Hear their stories.
Make it good as the worlds's eyes will be upon this relase and any further potential problems. RC2 should be fixing a much smaller list of bugs.
WE'RE STILL PLAYING AROUND WITH SCHEDULER CHOICES!! ???? I'd suggest more RCs. Blank CD-R media is CHEAP. Corporate downtime when bugs are discovered 1.5 weeks out from a release IS NOT!
Test Test Test Test Test. Beat the hell out of it - portinstall all ports. Rock the box and see how she holds. Try and crash it. Pound it from the network. Pull a live disk. JMP to a block of random bytes. Run 200 instances of your JVM. Start up as many desktop applications as possible. Try and kill your install and see how Beastie holds.....
5.3 is going to ROCK but SHOULD NOT BE RUSHED!!! If it needs time, by all means give RE-team time!
I hope we don't have to see a 5.3.1 release.
Perhaps the developers should require a certain variation in hardware platforms tested on or a given number of people to run it with no problems before final release.
(I don't run FreeBSD in a corporate environment or profess to know much about RE's testing process. Just trying to get in people's heads that extreme testing WILL make this release a HUGE success.)