[throw0101d]

> Mainly because there were 11 point releases of fixes and enhancements (4.11), as opposed to today where FreeBSD major version only have 3-4 point releases.

Mostly because 5.x took so long to be released.

IIRC, shortly after this experience the FreeBSD folks went from a feature-based release cycle to a time-based release cycle: everyone wanted feature X (and X and Y) in Next Release, and things got pushed and pushed.

So by having a steady cadence, a feature could be integrated regularly into HEAD, and folks didn't have to wait too long before a STABLE release was cut with all the latest and greatest stuff (that couldn't otherwise be backported because of compatibility guarantees).

[sgift]

Same experience which lead Java to change from feature-based release cycle to time-based release cycle later. Make regular releases, everything that is ready gets included, everything else can go onto the next train. Far better.