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FreeBSD Reduces OS Support from 5 to 4 Years, Continues Collaboration with AMD

5 points by BSDobelix 2y ago

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mikece 2y ago
Is FreeBSD changing so fast that five years was too long? I thought that O/S was the most stable and slowest changing O/S in common use.
bell-cot 2y ago
FWIW, here is most of the announcement from FreeBSD's Release Engineering Lead, Colin Percival. Notice that support won't actually get shorter until ~December of 2029: > 1. FreeBSD stable branch support durations, starting with FreeBSD 15.x, are being reduced from 5 years to 4 years after the .0 release. > 2. A predictable schedule of releases is being established, with a new minor release from one of the supported stable branches occurring most quarters. > More background: [...] > 5. Having a .0 release every 2 years works well from a development perspective (considering things like new features which can't be MFCed) but the security and ports teams can't practically manage more than 2 stable branches at once; so a 4 year support duration is more feasible than a 5 year support duration. > Based on this, the FreeBSD core team has approved reducing the stable branch support duration from 5 years to 4 years starting with FreeBSD 15 (the support duration for individual point releases will remain until "next point release + 3 months", although that will now be more predictable) and I have put together a schedule for upcoming releases: Release EoL 13.3: Mar 2024 Dec 2024 14.1: Jun 2024 Mar 2025 13.4: Sep 2024 Jun 2025 14.2: Dec 2024 Sep 2025 13.5: Mar 2025 Apr 2026* 14.3: Jun 2025 Jun 2026 15.0: Dec 2025 Sep 2026 14.4: Mar 2026 Dec 2026 15.1: Jun 2026 Mar 2027 14.5: Sep 2026 Jun 2027 15.2: Dec 2026 Sep 2027 14.6: Mar 2027 Nov 2028* 15.3: Jun 2027 Jun 2028 16.0: Dec 2027 Sep 2028 15.4: Mar 2028 Dec 2028 16.1: Jun 2028 Mar 2029 15.5: Sep 2028 Jun 2029 16.2: Dec 2028 Sep 2029 15.6: Mar 2029 Dec 2029 16.3: Jun 2029 Jun 2030 17.0: Dec 2029 Sep 2030 * 13.5 and 14.6 are supported until 5 years after 13.0 and 14.0 respectively.

5 points by BSDobelix 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

Is FreeBSD changing so fast that five years was too long? I thought that O/S was the most stable and slowest changing O/S in common use.

bell-cot 2y ago

FWIW, here is most of the announcement from FreeBSD's Release Engineering Lead, Colin Percival. Notice that support won't actually get shorter until ~December of 2029: > 1. FreeBSD stable branch support durations, starting with FreeBSD 15.x, are being reduced from 5 years to 4 years after the .0 release. > 2. A predictable schedule of releases is being established, with a new minor release from one of the supported stable branches occurring most quarters. > More background: [...] > 5. Having a .0 release every 2 years works well from a development perspective (considering things like new features which can't be MFCed) but the security and ports teams can't practically manage more than 2 stable branches at once; so a 4 year support duration is more feasible than a 5 year support duration. > Based on this, the FreeBSD core team has approved reducing the stable branch support duration from 5 years to 4 years starting with FreeBSD 15 (the support duration for individual point releases will remain until "next point release + 3 months", although that will now be more predictable) and I have put together a schedule for upcoming releases: Release EoL 13.3: Mar 2024 Dec 2024 14.1: Jun 2024 Mar 2025 13.4: Sep 2024 Jun 2025 14.2: Dec 2024 Sep 2025 13.5: Mar 2025 Apr 2026* 14.3: Jun 2025 Jun 2026 15.0: Dec 2025 Sep 2026 14.4: Mar 2026 Dec 2026 15.1: Jun 2026 Mar 2027 14.5: Sep 2026 Jun 2027 15.2: Dec 2026 Sep 2027 14.6: Mar 2027 Nov 2028* 15.3: Jun 2027 Jun 2028 16.0: Dec 2027 Sep 2028 15.4: Mar 2028 Dec 2028 16.1: Jun 2028 Mar 2029 15.5: Sep 2028 Jun 2029 16.2: Dec 2028 Sep 2029 15.6: Mar 2029 Dec 2029 16.3: Jun 2029 Jun 2030 17.0: Dec 2029 Sep 2030 * 13.5 and 14.6 are supported until 5 years after 13.0 and 14.0 respectively.