prad wrote: > why are older versions of openbsd (or linux or whatever os) kept around?
Not sure what you are referring to..I'm guessing you are referring to things you saw on some FTP servers and for sale on the website... If so, the answer is, much the same reason libraries don't throw away books or magazines when newer editions come out. Or why I keep books that cover electronic tube pinouts and specs, and why I have a WWII vintage book of trig tables and a 1930's vintage Comptometer at my desk at work. Ok, that really doesn't answer the question very well, let's try this: Because they are way cool bits of history, (btw: I do use the Comptometer from time to time...there hasn't been something invented that adds numbers better (and it's fun to watch people stare when I do)), > is it because some of the older versions may work better with older > machines? for instance, i recall that our 486 and p120 did really well > with slackware 8. we're going to get some 486s going again - should i > use an older version of openbsd? General answer: NO. Slightly more specific: From time to time, the developers have to drop support for a platform for various reasons, usually because no one cares to or is able to maintain it. HOWEVER, it may happen that you desire to revive one of these platforms, let us say, Amiga. In that case, you would probably want to start by bringing your development machine up on OpenBSD 3.2 (the last Amiga-supported version) and move forward from there. Or maybe you just want to see SOMETHING running on your PMAX or Sun3 system...in which case, fine, run an old version of OpenBSD, but keep it protected from the evil outside world. However, if you are wishing to run a supported platform, run the current release. That isn't to say it is always the easiest thing to do. OpenBSD/i386 3.0 ran pretty well on 16M of RAM for very simple applications. OpenBSD 4.0/i386 will probably want at least 24M, if not 32M for comparable utility. HOWEVER, five years ago, 16M was a reasonable surplus machine. Now, my office "throws away" 400MHz machines with 128M of RAM (ok, many start with more than 128M RAM, but I strip them down to 128M before they leave :). So, I'd really have difficulty imagining why you would want to run on such restricted hardware, when minor upgrades would make your life so much easier. If I were running OpenBSD on a 486 I expected to do a lot of work on, I'd reduce the SSH key size to what it was a couple releases ago, as the new, bigger keys take forever to generate, and a long time to log in. I'd try to have at least 32M of RAM. But, I'd run 4.0. It isn't like in the last five years, the requirements of OpenBSD have gone from 486 to P4. They have basically gone from 486 to..uh..486. 16M of RAM to 32M. That's really not bad. This isn't the growth rate that most other OSs have shown in the same time period. This is not a valid reason to run an obsolete version. This isn't like my Comptometer, the new versions really are better. :) > also, do some people like to stick with what is tried and true? our > home servers (p800) are running openbsd 3.9 beautifully. i want to try > openbsd 4.0 on my personal machine and wonder whether i should change > to 4 on the servers just to stay current. Lots of people don't upgrade when they should. Lots of people do lots of stupid things, that's not justification for you doing so. Keep your system current. There are lots of reasons to do that, few good reasons not to. While I hate the expression, "all software has bugs" (both because it denies the possibility of writing correct software, and it is also used as an excuse to not bother doing what is known can be done to write better software), OpenBSD developers work on the assumption that there are still bugs to be found and eliminated from OpenBSD. Fixes of critical issues are only pushed back to the previous release of OpenBSD (i.e., at the moment, critical issues are only fixed in 3.8 and 3.9, soon to be 3.9 and 4.0). So, if you are running 3.6 and a security problem is found, you will have to do an emergency upgrade. It is much better to just have the upgrade process part of your life. It is tempting to look at OpenBSD's security record and assume you can just put it in place and forget it. Unfortunately, that is not a good plan. I'd also advise keeping up with each release, don't sit back and wait for your system to go out of support, then upgrade two releases at a time. Nick.
