… read up on how to update that OS. …
IMHO the better OSes make it so easy that it's not necessary to learn how to update or upgrade. No need to read in advance.
In this area:
- GhostBSD excels
- FreeBSD CURRENT, STABLE and RELEASE will become more broadly appealing as things progress around PkgBase.
PkgBase
… how to safely update the system (regardless of how far out of date) reliably. … Let's assume that PkgBase is the way forward. and so on. https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-pkgbase In addition to the list, there's sometimes discussion of PkgBase in IRC for FreeBSD...
forums.freebsd.org