Quote from: passeri on January 17, 2026, 11:26:28 PMGiven the base is working software, not a development from scratch, I can understand that the release pattern does not follow a conventional cycle such as one might read in Wikipedia. I interpret development as a form of beta which is yet changing for reasons other than bugs. Community I accept as an advanced stable release which may yet have bugs which are fixed under _NN releases. Business is a supported stable release which might be called long term except that its term is not long.That's a sensible breakdown! Clear risk tiers, staged upgrades, and real-world testing beat confusing "alpha/beta" labels any day.
Opnsense is not the only operation to follow a pattern like this, nor the only forum in which it is argued. I think that the conventional namings from alpha through gold, including the word beta, confuse the issue by their prior connotations.
We have a stable base product. On that there is a development offshoot. When that is feature-complete (for this phase) and stable it becomes Community, field testing more advanced features ahead of the low-risk business edition.
The clear implication is that there are three levels of risk for the consumers who must themselves share the risk management as discussed, firstly by selecting in which level they will join and secondly by their own testing and timing of upgrades on one or more of their own systems. Personally I use select Community then upgrade (always with snapshots) through "Does it work for a few hours?" on a reserve box to "Does it work for a few days?" on an internal production box to "Here we go" on the edge router.