now it's openoffice.org-2

[John Nielsen]

Both of the applications you've mentioned problems with use GTK and other 
GNOME-related libraries. About a month ago the default location for gnome 
libraries was switched from /usr/X11R6 to /usr/local in conjunction with a 
GNOME update and presumably in an effort to modernize/standardize the file 
layout hierarchy. At the time there was an entry made in /usr/ports/UPDATING 
advising users of the change and providing instructions on how to make sure 
that everything was properly updated to use the new location.

The kind of sporadic build and run-time problems you are seeing could very 
well be caused by libraries not being installed in the same location that 
programs trying to link to them are looking for them in.

Please see the 20061014 entry in ports/UPDATING and follow the instructions 
found there. If using portupgrade, I would also advise adding the -v flag and 
saving the output so in case not everything builds cleanly on the first try 
you only need to update the ones that failed (or were skipped) instead of 
restarting the whole process.

Get into the habit of reading the relevant UPDATING file any time you update 
your src or ports trees.

Additional comments below not intended to be inflammatory:

On Monday 27 November 2006 15:36, probsd org wrote:
> I know some of you have labeled me a troll. I don't think I am a troll in
> pointing out to others who may be interested in FreeBSD not to look to it.
> I believe just "liking freebsd" despite it's issues isn't advantageous to
> the community.

I disagree. Telling others not to use a solid product because you had issues 
as a result of your own setup / problem-solving procedure / etc. is 
irresponsible and needless. Furthermore, the fact that you are still trying 
to get things working and posting to this list indicates that you are not 
taking your own (bad) advice, which would seem to imply that your initial 
post was just to vent your (understandable) frustration and not really to 
express your true opinion.

>   I've documented the problems with mozilla.

s/documented/hinted at. I'm going from memory here, but I don't think you 
indicated if or when you updated your ports tree or your mozilla port. You 
certainly didn't include any error messages, or even give examples of sites 
that exhibited the javascript problems you were seeing.

>   Now, with the latest STABLE branch of sourse and ports, openodffice.org-2
> after 10 hrs of comiling fails:

Openoffice.org always takes that long to compile. If you don't like it, there 
are precompiled packages available.

>   Error while making build_instsetoo_native.

That's about half a page short of a useful error report. You should have 
included all of the text leading up to the error, which presumably would have 
indicated which source files the error occurred in, and/or which libraries it 
was having trouble with.

>   Now, if you cant have the best wordprocessing app and one of the most
> popular web browsers in FreeBSD can you really expect people to embrace it.

Again, your experiences are not those of the majority of users. FreeBSD is 
what it is because people volunteer their time and skill to make sure that 
most things will work for most people most of the time. If the people things 
don't work for don't submit detailed problem reports and are not willing to 
work with the proper developer/community in the latter's own timeframe, then 
those people should not be surprised when the world doesn't stop on its heels 
to pry the relevant information out of an impatient complainer.

JN