Having multiple maintained versions isn't a mystery. (Although figuring out which one you want might be; I'm.... 80%... sure you want the highest numbered "RELEASE", not "STABLE", but not 100%).
Nobody asked, but a quarter century ago we used FreeBSD stable with current ports in a small business setting. A mostly unchanging base system but always the most recent user facing software (KDE iirc).
Linux distros only recently started doing this with the rise of flatpaks on top of immutable distros (or Debian stable).
I cannot imagine any reason why somebody would want to use RELEASE for production.
A RELEASE is good for installing FreeBSD on a new computer, or for upgrading from a previous major version of FreeBSD, e.g. from 13 to 14 or from 14 to 15.
After installing a RELEASE, you normally update it to STABLE, before starting to use the computer.
STABLE versions correspond to the long-term-support versions of Linux, i.e. they include only essential back-ported patches, like security patches or bug fixes.
RELEASE are the initial versions, like a Linux x.x.0 version, which may have various problems that are discovered later and corrected in the STABLE versions.
I have been running FreeBSD continuously 24/7 on many servers for more than a quarter of century, and I have always used STABLE on them (after installing RELEASE first, especially when upgrading from an older major version, to minimize the risks of incompatibilities).
I've been using FreeBSD since 1996, both commercially and as a hobbyist.
Early on, back in the CVS days, I would do a you describe, building STABLE out of /usr/src.
These days, I always use RELEASE and apply patches with freebsd-update.
* https://www.freebsd.org/security/#sup
(Yes. I know.)
Linux distros only recently started doing this with the rise of flatpaks on top of immutable distros (or Debian stable).
A RELEASE is good for installing FreeBSD on a new computer, or for upgrading from a previous major version of FreeBSD, e.g. from 13 to 14 or from 14 to 15.
After installing a RELEASE, you normally update it to STABLE, before starting to use the computer.
STABLE versions correspond to the long-term-support versions of Linux, i.e. they include only essential back-ported patches, like security patches or bug fixes.
RELEASE are the initial versions, like a Linux x.x.0 version, which may have various problems that are discovered later and corrected in the STABLE versions.
I have been running FreeBSD continuously 24/7 on many servers for more than a quarter of century, and I have always used STABLE on them (after installing RELEASE first, especially when upgrading from an older major version, to minimize the risks of incompatibilities).
These days, I always use RELEASE and apply patches with freebsd-update.
“FreeBSD-STABLE is the development branch from which major releases are made.”
(https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/cutting-edge)
probably works, but i’m not doing that on my prod thanks. (perhaps you’re thinking of the releng/foo branches instead?)
Also, real businesses use -CURRENT, everybody knows that.
No, not really.
https://people.freebsd.org/~gallatin/talks/OpenFest2023.pdf
Edit: I love HN. I'm obviously joking, but instant 4 downvotes
We're allowed to have fun, guys.