FreeBSD 7.3-release has a two-year support life with the option to upgrade to the FreeBSD 8.x branch at any time. More than one -release branch going at the same time? More than one -stable branch, plus a -current branch in constant development?

We (the -stable team) are announcing the release of the 2.6.22.4 kernel. It contains one security fix and all users of the 2.6.22 series are encouraged to upgrade to it.

One rather old laptop and one server were the test objects for this howto. Both systems do not have any RAID devices and use a simple partition scheme from a default basic Lenny install. If your setup deviates much from this, it's highly recommended to read all details of the Debian Release Notes before you continue. Be warned.

With Fedora 10 scheduled for release today, many users are thinking about how they are going to upgrade. A complete upgrade is something you do no more than twice a year, so the details are easy to forget.

WordPress, one of the most popular blog applications, suffers the same fate as many other open source projects: Users often delay upgrades despite a steady release cycle. That's because upgrading WordPress carries the risk of losing your virtual personality in the case of a botched upgrade.

I just saw the news that Debian Etch will no longer receive updates from the Debian Security Team as of Feb. 15, 2010. As you may or may not know, the current Stable version of Debian is Lenny, which received that "Stable" designation on Feb. 15, 2009. See the pattern?

The Debian / Ubuntu upgrade mechanism is a wonderful piece of software. When the new release comes out, just follow the instructions given by the update manager and the upgrade will be done almost automatically. Sometimes Ubuntu asks for your help when you made other changes than the upgrade program itself wants to make.

Stallman added that it's extremely important for Free Software users to upgrade their licenses to GPLv3 so that Novell will eventually put in the new version and the community will get this benefit.

Stallman advised viewers to be wary of those that advise against moving to GPLv3.

So you’re working with Ubuntu 8.04 or Fedora 10 and you’re jonesing over the new release of your distribution. How do you know if you should upgrade? Is it worth it? What would stop you from making the upgrade?