What is taking so long for next update

[provels]

LOL, half the forum wants to stay on Win7 and disable updates and half the forum wants pfSense 3.0.
I think you folks are doing fine!

[Grapeape22]

I was little curious when the next update coming out the last was on May 15 2019. It just seem it taking little longer for the next update. To me netgate took over pfsense update has sighting slow down little bit

[Grapeape22]

@johnpoz said in What is taking so long for next update:

@Grapeape22 said in What is taking so long for next update:

It seems ever sense netgate took over pfsense update had been slowing down

You understand that netgate took over like in 2012 right.. Look at the release history before that and after that...

yes i know that

[A Former User]

1. As far as I know there are 0 vulnerabilities currently being exploited.
2. Netgate and the pfsense team have been entirely open about the status of the upstream projects (FreeBSD) they are dependent on. Work is ongoing.
3. This project and the support forum is a dream compared to many other FOSS projects. Tons of people come to this forum every day with issues and have them resolved withing hours (many times minutes) of asking. All for FREE! The a-hole factor here is very low.
4. My pfsense gateway is by far the most reliable part of my network. It just works. I don't want my gateway to be on the bleeding edge. I leave that for my screwing around Linux systems.

I have two rules that I follow. They have served me well.

1. If you jumped on the bus through the back door, don't bitch about the driver.
2. What a system does now is all it will ever do. If you bought into a system based on something promised in the roadmap, you will be disappointed.

[johnpoz]

@Grapeape22 said in What is taking so long for next update:

yes i know that

Well then look at the release history... If anything there has been a HUGE increase in releases!! And actual work done as well. Your statement that it has slowed down since they took over is just not even close to be accurate at all..

Lets keep in mind that product has gotten way more complex since first release.. As something like this gets more mature and complexity increases.. Its not realistic to expect release every X days.. Not when the goal is quality, and not just changes and or releases.. If they wanted to - every single commit they could "release" Not how it works in such a project..

With complexity comes more work required to validate, as more and more systems are deployed on ever increasing amount of different systems come into play that could cause issues with a massive release for large chunk of users. Think about how many systems pfsense was deployed on - compared to how many today.. Your talking 100k before, to Millions today..

If you want to run the new release - your free to do so.. 2.5 snaps have been available for long time..

Lets not forget that pfsense is off a freebsd base - which changes.. And newer version of that came out during the process - which then moved their release too, which now all has to be validated and tested, etc etc.

Released when its ready is what your after, not some sort of days between if you ask me...

Just my 2 cents on the subject..

I have to concur with @provels as well - we see loads of posts where user is using some EOL system that isn't even running the latest version in that line they are running.. That can't be bothered keeping their system anywhere close to current... And then we have people asking where is the next release - its been forever since last release ;) Boggles the mind to be sure ;)

I am looking forward to the next release as well.. But if its next week, next month, next year even - I am confident that it will be released when the people putting in all hard work are happy with it, and ready to release it.

[Grapeape22]

@johnpoz okay I understand that makes more sense so the program got more complicated so it's taking a little more time.

[JKnott]

@johnpoz said in What is taking so long for next update:

Lets keep in mind that product has gotten way more complex since first release.. As something like this gets more mature and complexity increases.. Its not realistic to expect release every X days.. Not when the goal is quality, and not just changes and or releases.. If they wanted to - every single commit they could "release" Not how it works in such a project..

Many years ago, when I was at IBM, part of my job was integration testing of standard desktop systems. When something changed, the entire package had to be tested again. Changes are not taken lightly, not even updates to individual software.

[NollipfSense]

I have been wondering whether there is a beta testing guide. I believe we all had been eager for an update that I want to start using V. 2.5 which was waiting on FreeBSD 12.1 that was released last November. I don't know much but to me, V.2.4.5 seems a waste of energy at this stage. FreeBSD even laid out a timeline for V.12.2 (https://www.freebsd.org/releases/12.2R/schedule.html)

So, I am willing to turn my home/office/lab network, despite the small amount of connections, to help get V.2.5 show on the road. I just don't know what to start testing other than Suricata/Snort, and Bill is doing such an AWESOME job already... or pfBlockerNG but BBcan177 also is already doing an AWESOME job already. Maybe some of the senior forum gurus can draft a beta test guide for network novices like myself so we can contribute more than bitch sessions.

[provels]

@NollipfSense FWIW, I've been running 2.5 w/o out major issues for a couple of months. I'd say the base case is quite stable. But there are too many environmental variables for you to see issues with features you do not use. I'd just install it and keep up with the snapshots and forum.

[NollipfSense]

@provels said in What is taking so long for next update:

@NollipfSense FWIW, I've been running 2.5 w/o out major issues for a couple of months. I'd say the base case is quite stable. But there are too many environmental variables for you to see issues with features you do not use. I'd just install it and keep up with the snapshots and forum.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Provels, I'll do just that.

[NollipfSense]

@provels What a sense of relief when one takes the jump in the cold water!

[johnpoz]

And what was it in the 2.5 that you needed, that you could not wait til actually released? Curious...

[jimp]

@NollipfSense said in What is taking so long for next update:

I don't know much but to me, V.2.4.5 seems a waste of energy at this stage.

We have some hardware coming out soon that needs a new release which includes new code to support it, and 2.5.0 is not close enough to be done in time. Plus it's been a while since we made a release and there are plenty of important updates to get out to users.

[jimp]

There are still plenty of blockers left in 2.5. Limiters do not work properly, various interfaces are not behaving properly, and we need to move to 12-STABLE yet and shake out issues there. Plus all the remaining open issues we need to address. Some of those can be moved up, but not all of them.

[JKnott]

@jimp said in What is taking so long for next update:

We have some hardware coming out soon that needs a new release which includes new code to support it,

Any chance nut and APCUPSD will work properly with newer APC UPSs?

[NollipfSense]

@johnpoz Mainly it was Snort inline mode except for just want to help if I can, and anyway I can. So, now I have Suricata inline mode on WAN and Snort inline mode LAN.

[jimp]

@JKnott said in What is taking so long for next update:

Any chance nut and APCUPSD will work properly with newer APC UPSs?

If it's something fixed in the ports tree, maybe? We do not maintain the apcupsd port. If there is something it's missing in the port, it needs fixed there. From another recent thread I got the impression it was an upstream problem with the drivers. That isn't something we can really control.

2.4.5 has the latest quarterly ports branch (from a few days ago, 2020Q1), so if it's fixed there, 2.4.5 would have it. Otherwise, it'd need to be fixed in FreeBSD first and then we can maybe pick it back. That's not really a topic for this thread, though.

[JKnott]

@jimp said in What is taking so long for next update:

From another recent thread I got the impression it was an upstream problem with the drivers.

I knew it was upstream. I was just hoping the FreeBSD team had fixed it.

BTW, that other recent thread was likely mine. I bought a couple of new UPSs a few months ago and found that they worked fine with Linux, but not pfsense. The older UPSs, which they replaced, worked fine with both Linux and pfSense.

[NollipfSense]

@jimp My comment applied only to me...there was no guarantee that Snort 4.0 would work with V.2.4.5.