FreeBSD lifecycle

[Markus69]

Greetings!

I've been using Unix since a long time now, starting with Interactive Unix millions of years ago.
While using a lot of different variants of Unix (like SunOS, Solaris, AIX, Sinix, OpenBSD and other), I stuck to Linux since its beginnings.
Now, with the discussion around 'systemd', I feel that the time has come to move on and give FreeBSD a real try.

I browsed to a lot of documentation about FreeBSD now, read documents about upgrade strategy etc., but I missed a special information vital for me:
What's the FreeBSD lifecycle, how does it work?
If I install a version 10 system now - how long do I receive upgrades for the base?

Either I missed this information, or I didn't understand updates properly.

Any hints? What did I miss?
Markus

 

[junovitch@]

See https://lists.FreeBSD.org/pipermail/freebsd-announce/2015-February/001624.html for the recent official policy change along with an explanation of the past policy that would impact you on FreeBSD 10.x today.

 

[Markus69]

To summarize - if I read it correctly:

- Beginning with 11, it will be 5 years
- Before 11, it is 5 years minimum, but can be longer, it is unknown how long exactly.

Correct?

 

[junovitch@]

Correct. 5 years was an unofficial target and the support lifetime for a point release varied depending on whether it was a normal or extended support release. There is some more explanation of the current policy on the supported releases page at the link below.

https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/security.html#sup

 

[SirDice]

If I remember correctly the old scheme was something like:

.0 - expires as soon as .1 comes out
odd number versions like .1, .3, .5 etc. had "extended" support (2 years)
even number versions like .2, .4 etc. had "normal" support (1 year)
Exception was the last minor version of a major branch (8.4 for example), those had "extended" support.

Both 10.1 and 10.2 should be supported until at least December 2016. So you have some time. I'm quite sure there will be a 10.3 and perhaps even a 10.4 release some time in the future. Updating minor releases is usually quick and easy.