I would like to hear more about why you use it. I used to use FreeBSD for everything, but it's my understanding that the once significant differences in performance and stability between Linux and BSD no longer amount to anything. I switched to Gentoo (can not give up source builds!) two years ago.
It typically has less to do with performance or stability than with ease of use. While Linux is piling on features, BSD focuses on clean design and quality of code and documentation. Linux is "do it now," BSD is "do it right."
What does LTS have to do with production? Unless you plan to leave your servers still for 7 years I don't see why you can't use the latest and greatest. It isn't as if LTS if the only one that gets patched, it just gets patched for the longest.
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