On Thu, 2007-Feb-01 17:33:48 -0500, Chuck Swiger wrote: >That's OK, I wasn't soliciting advice on which platform or OS version a >given set of machines ought to run. When the number of machines one deals >with in a given environment changes from single-digit, to dozens, to >hundreds, to tens of thousands, keeping machines updated to a bug-free, >stable environment is more important than chasing features off the latest >branch.
This is a perfectly valid decision. At work, I have systems running software (not FreeBSD) that is getting close to 10 years old for similar reasons. In general, support of your systems will comprise some combination of in-house support, vendor (eg FreeBSD Project) support and 3rd-party (eg consultant) support. Over time, this mix will change as the vendor reduces the level of support they provide for a given software version. You need to take this into account when making a decision to stay at some version X: As vendor support is reduced then your in- house and 3rd-party support effort will increase. At some point, the cost/effort involved in staying at version X outweighs the cost of migrating to a newer "supported" version of the software. The FreeBSD SO has advised that 5.x will receive security updates until 31 May 2008. This gives you 15 months to either migrate to 6.x (or 7.x) or arrange alternative security support. -- Peter Jeremy
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