FreeBSD Releases

[z0mbix]

OK, I'm going to sound a complete moron here, but this is something I still can't fully understand so I'm going to swallow my pride and ask. Can somebody explain in simple terms how the FreeBSD releases work? i.e. what exactly is the difference between 4-STABLE, 4-RELEASE and 5-STABLE etc. etc.

Is s RELEASE more stable than STABLE? :?

I've read pages and pages of info about it on freebsd.org but I think it's just confused me more that I already was. What I am planning to do is run FBSD on my laptop instead of Linux and need to understand the release system so that I can choose the correct version. It seems all the hardware is supported. From what I gather, in order of unstability/development they are in this order?:

CURRENT
STABLE
RELEASE

In that case, should I run 4.8 when it comes out instead of 5.0? The laptop is my work laptop that I use for Web Development (apache/php/mysql), StarOffice, Mozilla and Evolution. I've use OpenBSD alot more which seems alot simpler to get my head around but I really want to run FBSD because of the greater selection of packages and ports available.

Cheers for any info :)

[Kernel_Killer]

You know. This could be quite a bit of a opinionated type of thing. Even though RELEASE has some pacakges that are not yet completely stable, the OS itself seems quite stable itself. For example, FreeBSD 5.0 rc2 I thought was quite stable, and after switching to FreeBSD 5.0-RELEASE, I'm not seeing much of a difference other than package enhancements.

[socomm]

CURRENT -- The very latest version of FreeBSD, still under development. "Bleeding edge." "Work in progress."

RELASE -- This is the latest version which has been released for general use. Contains new features, and has been through extensive testing.

STABLE -- A version of RELEASE to which all possible bug fixes have been applied, in order to make as stable as posible.

Hope that cleared it up a bit.

[z0mbix]

Thks chaps. That's kinda sorted things out. I think I go for 4.8-RELEASE when it comes out and see how it goes.