Where is FreeBSD 15 LTS download link? (There is no download link for the lts version.)

TL;DR

Every major version will be supported for at least 5 years. But only the last minor version of that major branch is supported.
 
SirDice said:
Every major version will be supported for at least 5 years
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As of FreeBSD 15, thas has changed to 4, The FreeBSD support model:
The FreeBSD support model

Each minor release is only supported for three months after the next minor release within the same major version, or (for the final minor release) until support for the major version’s stable branch ends. From FreeBSD 15 onward, each stable branch is explicitly supported for 4 years from its dot-zero release. Support for the stable branch of FreeBSD 14 ends on November 30, 2028.

This model’s rationale is detailed in the official announcements of the 4-year support period for stable branches, sent in July 2024, and the switch to a branch-based support model, sent in February 2015.
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Note that API (Application Programming Interface), ABI (Application Binary Interface) / KPI (Kernel Programming Interface) are "basically" kept backward compatible within single major version (i.e., 14 and 15), thus, "basically" no worries on upgrading to newer minor version of the same major version (i.e., 14.3 to 14.4, 15.0 to 15.1).

But there are always possibilities of unfortunate exceptions.
  1. LinuxKPI is mutually changes quite often, breaking any kernel modules depending on it and force rebuilds (i.e., graphics/drm-*-kmod and graphics/nvidia-drm-*-kmod* ports requires LinuxKPI, thus, strongly recommended to build locally from ports).
  2. KBI (Kernel Binary Interface) is NOT assured to be backward compatible.
  3. Any API / ABI / KPI can be modified if it's mutually mandatory to fix security vulnerabilities and/or severe crashes.
1. and 2. above basically affects for kmod ports only. And the reason why FreeBSD{-ports}-kmods repo exists. But there are exceptions, ports abusing KPI/KBI or any not-exposed kernel internals like sysutils/lsof are affected, but should be quite limited.

3. should be just a possibility. As far as I can recall for now, nothing applies for releng/* branch that *-RELEASE are built from.
Note that stable/* could be affected (hopefully) temporarily as of mis-merges or insufficient merge / additional works. But it should be fixed or backed out before next releng/* branches from the stable/* branch.
 
FreeBSD doesn't really use the word "LTS".

Furthermore, the "stable" version of FreeBSD is actually not the most stable. The "release" version is intended for long-term usage and stability. People coming from Linux tend to get confused by that. In FreeBSD, "stable" means it is more stable than "current", which is a development and testing version. Current does not mean "it has all the most recent updates in it and is intended for the general public to use in production". Current means it is a version intended for testing and finding bugs.
 
bakul said:
There should be an FAQ for Linux users coming to FreeBSD.
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It's called the handbook.

OK, that was half sarcasm: FreeBSD has usually EXCELLENT documentation. When I say "usually", it means that there are many places where it could be better. For example, I just spent many hours messing with periodic tasks, and while there is a handbook chapter on how to re-configure periodic, it completely ignores some discrepancies between man pages and actual implementation. This should be improved, and I'll probably open a PR once I got my situation figured out.

Along the same lines, a dedicated part of the handbook for "if you are accustomed to Linux, here are the crucial difference" might be good. Not just the "how things work", but also "what things are called", and "what overall goals and traditions are different". One example is the principle of least surprise, which is much more followed in FreeBSD.
 
ralphbsz said:
OK, that was half sarcasm
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What triggered that?

A one pager comparison of linux vs freebsd with a link to handbook section might reduce the frequency of such questions and genuinely help these folks get started. It is well and good to say (as I often do) "FreeBSD is not Linux" but that doesn't help people exposed to just Linux. And in this age of TL;DR how many people actually read such handbooks until after it is too late and even then perfunctorily.
 
There are two (2) distribution versions of FreeBSD - RELEASE and CURRENT
RELEASE contains bugs that were not fixed in CURRENT before RELEASE
CURRENT contains bugs that will be included in the next RELEASE
;)
 
hasbeen said:
There are two (2) distribution versions of FreeBSD - RELEASE and CURRENT
RELEASE contains bugs that were not fixed in CURRENT before RELEASE
CURRENT contains bugs that will be included in the next RELEASE
;)
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There are intermediate ones called stable/*.

Bugs fixed on CURRENT (aka main or master) affecting any of stable/* would be (hopefully) merged into stable/* (called MFC: Merge From Current).
RELEASE (aka releng/*) basically receives security (and stability, hopefully) fixes only from corresponding stable/* (called MFS: Merge From Stable).

Some of fixes that are no longer related with CURRENT (i.e., completely switched implementation, switched branches of contributed 3rd party softwares) are fixed directly in affected stable/* (direct commits).

And some of fixes that are no longer related even with stable/* could be committed directly into releng/*, and official releases are built using any of releng/* branch only (i.e., 15.0-RELEASE-p2, 15.0-RELEASE-p3,... are built from releng/15.0 at some points).

Direct commits includes version bumps, that cannot be the same (as a set) with anything others.
 
It always amazes me how many people are unable to read a *SINGLE LINE* of text *right above the links* on the exact page where they are downloading the image...

Production Quality​


Production Releases are the latest supported versions produced by Release Engineering for new installations.
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Legacy Production Quality​


Legacy Production Releases are previous releases still under support for maintaining existing installations.
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Development Snapshots​


Development snapshot images are provided for testing experimental features and regressions.
  • CURRENT images are weekly snapshots built for testing the bleeding-edge main development branch.
  • STABLE images are weekly snapshots built for testing what will become pre-release images.
  • ALPHA, BETA, and release candidates (RC) are pre-release images, please test these if available.
Please read the development tracking guide before downloading one of these images.
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(OK, OK - for development versions it's more than a single line. OTOH, if one is unable to read more than one line, this person shouldn't download a development snapshot anyways...)
 
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