Hi,
Peter N. M. Hansteen wrote on Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 10:25:33AM +0100:
> And the chance of finding a snapshot that matches the release
> *exactly* is minimal to non-existent to start with.
Even if you manage to find it in snapshots, trying to run -release
before it is released has two considerable downsides that Peter
did not even mention yet:
1. There are no security and reliability patches before release day,
and not even notifications.
2. Even if you manage to find a matching repository of packages
when installing, that will go away at some unpredictable point
in time and only reappear on release day in a different place.
So if you need to add any forgotten packages (or any packages
that need security fixes) after the packages disappeared but
before release, you may have no choice but to build from ports
yourself (and, in the case of security fixes, probably backport
the patches yourself).
For these two reasons, running -release before release day is
considerably more difficult than running -current. When, while
running -current, you suspect a security issue or installing a
package from the snapshot mirrors fails due to library version
mismatches, you simply update to the latest snapshot and are done
with it - without even needing to understand whether there was
really a security issue or where the library version mismatch
came from.
Running -release before release day, that won't work, and you are
forced to backport security patches and/or build from ports yourself,
including a precise understanding of library versioning when dealing
with ports. That's certainly possible (you know, developers do
that all the time), but many people seem to have a tendency to
underestimate the difficulty and/or overestimate their skill levels,
most probably because they are not even aware of some of the issues
involved that require understanding. Things seem simple when you
are unaware that there is something you need to know...
That said, both of your feet are your own, to shoot or to preserve
unhurt in whichever way you prefer.
Yours,
Ingo
