Time for some updates

[Ben Walton]

On Sat 4 Jan 2025, 14:58 Yuri via users, <users at lists.opencsw.org> wrote:

> Gentlemen, don't you think it's time for some updates?
>
> For example, Perl. It's too old, 14 years is a bit too much to run most
> of the CPAN modules. Or GCC. I'd like to see at least 6.5 in 2024. Or
> openvpn. The current version is outdated.
>
> Redis is generally archaic, given that 5.0.14 is built from sources on
> Solaris 10 without any problems.
>
> I understand that the problem of maintainers has not gone away and in
> general - if you want something, build it yourself.
>
> But let's at least refresh Perl and GCC a little, okay? They are
> hopelessly ancient. If I can build a compiler from sources myself,
> whichever I like, then I couldn't build Perl. Not with any attempt.
>
I think you already understand the problem here. The people that were
investing their time in this aren't doing that much anymore because they've
moved on. It's been a long time since I logged into any Solaris machine at
this point and it's unlikely I will in the future. If I do, it's very
unlikely to be building software on it. I think many other folks are in a
similar position because they are scratching different itches in different
technical contexts. Not everyone has moved on, but those still here
seemingly don't have a need to update these packages.

If you need these, I suggest you roll up your sleeves. Dago can still get
you access to the build farm where you'd have a pretty straight forward
path to building the updated packages you want.

I know this doesn't actually help you, but at least it confirms your
suspicion.

Thanks
-Ben

> Maybe there are newer versions posted somewhere and I just don't see them? For
> example, in unstable or testing?
>
> WBR, Yuri
>
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