I am happy to announce a new version of Plant Base – 2.1.10

For all editions, Windows, Mac and Linux, there are a number of bug fixes.  For that reason I would recommend that all users update the program.  It’s quick and easy and does not need to have any effect on the database.

There is also an updated database release – 29.  Existing users can choose whether to update now, or later, or stay with their existing data.  It has some new plant records and pictures, but yet again most amendments are due to plant name and classification changes.

There is an additional function that enables selecting plants from within an existing Plant List.  This can be quite a handy thing for anyone who uses Lists extensively.  It’s implemented only by a simple extra drop-down box on the Select Plant tab.  The List used for a search is complete;y independent from the current active Plant List – this is important because it enables plants from the search result of one List to be easily added to a different List.

For the Mac edition there are two other significant changes.   The normal application is now a 64-bit build.  This is a requirement for the latest versions of MacOS.  An equivalent 32-build is still available and included in the install files.  User with old hardware may need this, specifically models with “Core Solo” or “Core Duo”  processors.  Also other elderly machines with limited RAM may be better running the 32-bit app.   The other big change is that a separate folder to hold the application files is no longer needed. All the help and language files are now contained within the PlantBase.app package bundle. This makes it more like other typical Mac applications.

For the Linux edition, which has by far the newest program code,  there have been numerous extra bug fixes and small user interface improvements.   As for Windows and Mac it is available in both 64-bit and 32-bit form.  While I still regard the Linux edition as a Beta test release, it has been running very well on my own systems. It is certainly equivalent to the Windows and Mac programs, with which much of the code is shared.   Due to the huge number of different Linux distributions and desktop environment, it’s impossible to ensure running on all variations.  Distros based on Debian, such as MX, Mint and Ubuntu, should be no problem and I’m hoping to find time to test on others.

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