Seems stupid, that PlexPass members from time to time (Read: about once every 14 days) cry out for a former version of PMS or other official PlexPass builds, and they are not avail for download.
As such, I would like to suggest, that Plex host for at least the last 5 builds of their products, that PlexPass members can download, instead as of now, only the latest and greatest.
After all, I'm an IT dude, and hate redundency, but Plex is forcing everybody to keep their own repository.
Seems kinda lame to me, and the solution should be simple for Plex, or ?
I keep a repository, too ... but ... I shutter to think about the confusion from folks demanding attention for older installations, explaining/complaining about why they are forced to use older builds, and neophytes latching on to older installations to fix problems they think they have.
I realize some people view the PlexPass as a ticket to newer releases, but it is more an opportunity to have a louder voice in guiding development. And every beta user that steps back to a previous beta version is one less voice in that conversation.
I worry that having this PlexPass community scattered among different releases might distract PlexDevs (and PlexPassers) from concetrating on the latest build -- and getting it ready for prime time. Therefore, I support a repository of official public releases, but think the option for those who do not save pre-release versions should be either the latest beta, or one of the officially released builds.
I keep a repository, too ... but ... I shutter to think about the confusion from folks demanding attention for older installations, explaining/complaining about why they are forced to use older builds, and neophytes latching on to older installations to fix problems they think they have.
I realize some people view the PlexPass as a ticket to newer releases, but it is more an opportunity to have a louder voice in guiding development. And every beta user that steps back to a previous beta version is one less voice in that conversation.
I worry that having this PlexPass community scattered among different releases might distract PlexDevs (and PlexPassers) from concetrating on the latest build -- and getting it ready for prime time. Therefore, I support a repository of official public releases, but think the option for those who do not save pre-release versions should be either the latest beta, or one of the officially released builds.
Most times, it's not a matter of permanently downgrading, but to do it temporary, either due to a bug in the latest and greatest, that for you leaves you with a non working Plex, or to test when a potential bug/regression was created
I feel that if you are installing beta software you should know what your doing. It's beta, I love installing it with all its buggy goodness so I can help the software moving forward. And the plex beta software is very stable, and the plex team is so diligently working on plex that a lot of the time my bugs that I report are fixed within a few days. If you don't want to deal with bugs then go back to the public release.
I feel that if you are installing beta software you should know what your doing. It's beta, I love installing it with all its buggy goodness so I can help the software moving forward. And the plex beta software is very stable, and the plex team is so diligently working on plex that a lot of the time my bugs that I report are fixed within a few days. If you don't want to deal with bugs then go back to the public release.
Huh....
I kinda know what I'm doing here, and I DO, as already stated, keep my own repository, so I can switch between versions for testing purpose etc.
I have a dedicated test system for Plex, and a production system as well.
All I said was, that why should we all keep the versions, instead of consolidating at one place, and the most logical place would be @ the Plex servers
I don’t disagree with the request however reverting to the last public release kind of provides this already. There arn’t that many PlexPass releases between public ones.
Ok I misunderstood a little bit of what you were saying, I can see the benefit of having a single place to get previous releases for testing. That being said If everyone had access to pick and choose to much then the community bug reporting would then get bugs reported that are outdated. There are people who bought a plexpass and do not really knows what it entails, and if you give those people choice then it halts forward movement on the development. I applaud you for working on the bugs, most people do not work to find a solution to any bugs, they just report the bug.
If this repository was only accessible to community devs that are actually working on bug fixes then yes, I agree. As for letting anyone be able to move back and forth no, this would cause confusion and delay for fixing and adding featues.
I understand fully what dane22 is saying -- backing off to a previous version allows you to "test" whether anomolous behavior might be coded in to the latest beta. I do that myself whenever necessary. In fact, I always keep the backdoor open with any software package I install, in particular those that I depend on. (And, I'll bet most of you all do that, too.)
And, let's be clear: a majority of the people in this thread, taking the time to deliberate this so fully, are NOT the source of my concern. Dane22 -- with a production and testing environment -- should have access to all versions, but he already does. As always, dane22 is thinking of others, and I recognize the feature request is made with only the best intentions. All my respect. But if the user is not running the latest beta and is posting bug reports, the first response should be, "install the latest version."
I don't feel that strongly about it, and I should not be arguing about it, so I will stop after this.
But, without intending disrespect, consider the latest PHT release: "BEWARE, this release should be consider more alpha than beta, before you update please read the thread in the Plex HT Releases forum for more information." Why would anybody install alpha software without keeping the previous version or without anticipating bugs? And if maintaining a backup copy is a "pain in the ass," consider the inconvenience for developers of maintaining a repository of beta versions (and, by extension, supporting them) ... I don't know many development efforts that do that, for good very reason. Public releases, sure. Betas and alphas? If for no other reason, I made this final post to help those jumping in to PlexPass without being fully aware of the circumstance -- even if Plex does maintain a repository, you should still keep one, too.
OK, I promise to leave this one alone from here on out.
OK, I promise to leave this one alone from here on out.
Nope...You're like me...I spotted you out a long time ago....Like me, you simply can't resist :P
And just kidding.....
You was 100 % correct here.....
The reason I posted this, was due to the fact that I keep a repository, you do, and a lot of other people up here, that are used to Beta Sw does.
1)
But up here, we also have non-IT dudes hanging around, and they are paying for access just as well as you and I, and I personally would not like if they #¤%%¤#% up their installation, and then maybe was forced to go back to the public version, missing the feature they wanted, and was working for them in the previous build.
2)
I hate wasting disk space by principle, so no need for all of us to store a repository
