# Release Mixing and other Question



## h3z (Jan 26, 2013)

Have not been around long enough to know this .
I have noticed that the 8.3 stable package collection is quite complete when compared to the newer 9 series .

When the 9 series ends and 10 begins its release, will the last 9 series stable collect be as full a collection as 8.3 is for the 8 series ?

Note: I know that ports is a full resource for all releases, but I did not enjoy the thought of downloading all the newest distfiles for offline situations .

Also can one use older stable package collections on newer releases ? I know the other way would not be wise .


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## fonz (Jan 26, 2013)

h3z said:
			
		

> I have noticed that the 8.3 stable package collection is quite complete when compared to the newer 9 series .


Three things:
There's no such thing as 8.3-STABLE. You probably mean 8-STABLE or 8.3-RELEASE.
What exactly do you mean by "complete"? Are there packages available for 8-STABLE that are missing for 9-STABLE?
You are aware that the packages for 9.1-RELEASE are still being built, right?


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## h3z (Jan 26, 2013)

fonz said:
			
		

> Three things:
> There's no such thing as 8.3-STABLE. You probably mean 8-STABLE or 8.3-RELEASE.
> What exactly do you mean by "complete"? Are there packages available for 8-STABLE that are missing for 9-STABLE?
> You are aware that the packages for 9.1-RELEASE are still being built, right?



1. Yes I mean 8 stable

2. Yes there are Packages in 8 stable that are not in 9 stable

3. That would, in part answer my question .


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## fonz (Jan 26, 2013)

h3z said:
			
		

> Yes there are Packages in 8 stable that are not in 9 stable


If you're sure you are talking about the 9-STABLE packages and not the 9.1-RELEASE packages, can you name some of the packages you're missing? Ports (and therefore packages too) sometimes become obsolete, break, get merged with others, get replaced, etc.


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## h3z (Jan 26, 2013)

Yes the comparison is between stable collections .
Vlc one package I have noticed .


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## fonz (Jan 26, 2013)

multimedia/vlc indeed appears not to be available as a 9-STABLE package. I'm not sure why that is, but the package is available for 9.0-RELEASE. Perhaps you can try that.


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## h3z (Jan 26, 2013)

fonz said:
			
		

> multimedia/vlc indeed appears not to be available as a 9-STABLE package. I'm not sure why that is, but the package is available for 9.0-RELEASE. Perhaps you can try that.



You are quite right . But, I believe the version is out of date when compared to the 8-STABLE packaging of it.

On a side note, would you say that the 9 series is, indeed rather complete .


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## wblock@ (Jan 26, 2013)

Many 9.x packages were missing because of the security problems from a few months ago.  They will become available at some point.  Also, some code can't be distributed as packages due of licensing issues.

In the meantime, consider the many advantages of ports, chief among them that you don't have to mess with packages.


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## h3z (Jan 26, 2013)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Many 9.x packages were missing because of the security problems from a few months ago.  They will become available at some point.  Also, some code can't be distributed as packages due of licensing issues.
> 
> In the meantime, consider the many advantages of ports, chief among them that you don't have to mess with packages.



With that I consider my question answered . 

I am a pleased user of 8.3 . But, because the ports collection is so key in the FreeBSD OS, I wondered if the packages where going to get less priority eventually .

Gladly, it seems that is not the case .

So, by the time I need to say goodbye to 8.3, 9-STABLE will be a very nicely developed collection .

And, yes the Ports system is an awsome power tool .

Most applications that cannot be packaged, due to licensing have nice alternatives anyway .


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## fonz (Jan 26, 2013)

h3z said:
			
		

> But, I believe the version is out of date when compared to the 8-STABLE packaging of it.


I hadn't noticed, but that appears to be the case indeed.



			
				h3z said:
			
		

> On a side note, would you say that the 9 series is, indeed rather complete .


See Warren's post above.


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## h3z (Jan 26, 2013)

fonz said:
			
		

> I hadn't noticed, but that appears to be the case indeed.


Not that Vlc is of extreme importance .


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## fonz (Jan 26, 2013)

h3z said:
			
		

> Not that Vlc is of extreme importance .


Depends on what you're using the system for. If it's a multimedia machine that must be able to reliably play many different video formats, including handling subtitle tracks and all that, I'd say multimedia/vlc is pretty important (although there are alternatives, like multimedia/mplayer or multimedia/xine).

Anyway, since (if I understand correctly) you're not in a hurry to switch from 8.3-RELEASE to 9-_something_, I suggest that you keep an eye on the packages collections for 9-STABLE and 9.1-RELEASE to see what eventually shows up. If it's vlc-2.x.y, you'll know you can use that package. It it turns out to be vlc-1.p.q, you might want to ask why that is and build vlc from ports instead if necessary.

Hope this helps.


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