Couple of questions

[Jimbo99]

Several products included in 9.0 are out of date and were out of date when 9.0 was released. Can we expect them to be updated? Some of those, such as Google Chrome, were outdated when they were released and had some bugs, annoying bugs -- this waiting process for a new major release means we have had to live with these bugs for some time now. Is there a way to get the updates installed without having to wait for a new major update?

Some examples of these are:

KDE 4.8.x (and basically every application installed with it)
Google Chrome (this thing won't let me set it as the default browser)
VLC (missing so much without those updates)

I haven't gone back over my list for some time, but I do know things like the cursors for KDE and the icons aren't properly implemented. You can download icon sets on Linux that work great but when you add them to PC-BSD 9.0 they don't work fully (icon re-sizing issues, etc).

I have ongoing issues with krunner and various other related software that keeps my CPU utilization at 100% unless I kill krunner. That would be great to have fixed. It makes the system sluggish and creates stability issues.

I have never found how to use the PBI. I assumed there'd be a library of downloadable PBI packages that I could keep and use whenever and on however many computers I needed and then double click to make them work. I guess I'm wrong or I'm missing something. Anyone have tips to get me started properly here?

There are many other software products that are buggy and/or out of date that I didn't list. My point is that the problem is bigger than my post lets on.

[fluca1978]

Several products included in 9.0 are out of date and were out of date when 9.0 was released. Can we expect them to be updated?

This problem happens with a lot of distributions, once they are released the software in them is frozen. That's why we have update managers!

I have never found how to use the PBI. I assumed there'd be a library of downloadable PBI packages that I could keep and use whenever and on however many computers I needed and then double click to make them work. I guess I'm wrong or I'm missing something. Anyone have tips to get me started properly here?

AppCafè? One of the pbi* command line scripts?

There are many other software products that are buggy and/or out of date that I didn't list. My point is that the problem is bigger than my post lets on.

[/QUOTE]

Well, being out of date is not always a bad thing, especially if it lead more stability. Being buggy...it depends on the software and the execution context. It is hard to give a solution without details.

[purgatori]

Several products included in 9.0 are out of date and were out of date when 9.0 was released. Can we expect them to be updated? Some of those, such as Google Chrome, were outdated when they were released and had some bugs, annoying bugs -- this waiting process for a new major release means we have had to live with these bugs for some time now. Is there a way to get the updates installed without having to wait for a new major update?

Some examples of these are:

KDE 4.8.x (and basically every application installed with it)
Google Chrome (this thing won't let me set it as the default browser)
VLC (missing so much without those updates)

I haven't gone back over my list for some time, but I do know things like the cursors for KDE and the icons aren't properly implemented. You can download icon sets on Linux that work great but when you add them to PC-BSD 9.0 they don't work fully (icon re-sizing issues, etc).

I have ongoing issues with krunner and various other related software that keeps my CPU utilization at 100% unless I kill krunner. That would be great to have fixed. It makes the system sluggish and creates stability issues.

I have never found how to use the PBI. I assumed there'd be a library of downloadable PBI packages that I could keep and use whenever and on however many computers I needed and then double click to make them work. I guess I'm wrong or I'm missing something. Anyone have tips to get me started properly here?

There are many other software products that are buggy and/or out of date that I didn't list. My point is that the problem is bigger than my post lets on.

It would be extremely helpful if you could use the PBI discussion sub-forum to list and describe any bugs in apps you have installed from PBI.

[Jimbo99]

I've been involved in computing for a long time and I have been involved in Linux for many years. I'm trying PC-BSD 9.0 and have had it running since it was released. With that said:

I don't believe most distributions freeze like that. In my experience I have never found a modern distribution that does that--Linux anyways--as even some LTS release are updated regularly. With some, I can get updates almost every day on some apps. I'm not looking for cutting edge. I'm just looking for fixes, fixes (such as fixes to the Chrome browser, or a more up to date version of the desktop manager that fixes some important bugs) that don't need me to live with the bugs for 6-9 months. If the PBI is meant to address that it would really make sense to bring that out into the light of day. No one I know that uses PC-BSD has a clue about where to get them and how they are supposed to be used. I thought I understood the purpose of them. I guess not.

As far as PBI goes. I'm not sure what the guy addressing me in this thread is saying. I'm not going to traipse around the forums just because I mention that topic in the middle of other topics. And If whomever posted their response regarding PBI would have read what I wrote he would understand how pointless that response seems. No offense.

I don't mean to bitch. I'm just after answers to the points I made and really I didn't get any. I do appreciate when people help and explain things. When it comes to criticism it is probably best to take it and at least attempt some effort to address them. Otherwise, the responses seem to be quasi-political. Most of us would just like to have the issues we encounter fixed. If you are going to make a BSD distribution for people and you are going to create something like the PBI (which is assumed was to help people use BSD), then some effort could be made to help us. Otherwise it seems sort of like what I used to hear all the time from the Linux zealots which alienated everyone--that "this is our OS".

[fluca1978]

I don't believe most distributions freeze like that. In my experience I have never found a modern distribution that does that--Linux anyways--as even some LTS release are updated regularly. With some, I can get updates almost every day on some apps. I'm not looking for cutting edge. I'm just looking for fixes, fixes (such as fixes to the Chrome browser, or a more up to date version of the desktop manager that fixes some important bugs) that don't need me to live with the bugs for 6-9 months. If the PBI is meant to address that it would really make sense to bring that out into the light of day. No one I know that uses PC-BSD has a clue about where to get them and how they are supposed to be used. I thought I understood the purpose of them. I guess not.

I meant that each time a release is released it comes out with some software version, and therefore chances are that on a plain install your software base is already outdated. Of course you should be able to update your software, and I'm not getting the point here since the code is regularly updated, the pc-updater executes a check regularly and suggest OS updates. It could be that the PBIs are outdated with regard to the ports/packages, and I've emphasized at least one situation with QtCreator, but within one day the newer version has been built. So I'm not sure to ge the point here.

I don't mean to bitch. I'm just after answers to the points I made and really I didn't get any. I do appreciate when people help and explain things. When it comes to criticism it is probably best to take it and at least attempt some effort to address them. Otherwise, the responses seem to be quasi-political. Most of us would just like to have the issues we encounter fixed. If you are going to make a BSD distribution for people and you are going to create something like the PBI (which is assumed was to help people use BSD), then some effort could be made to help us. Otherwise it seems sort of like what I used to hear all the time from the Linux zealots which alienated everyone--that "this is our OS".

I'm not sure to get the concept here too. PBI is a great system and is still under heavy development, and build servers are producing PBIs and new applications are going to be ported. I don't get what the help you claim about is related to.
Sorry.