On Mon, 12 Jun 2000, Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH wrote:
> Sadly, not true. Using Mandrake RPMs on an RH system was a crapshoot even
> before 7.0; and several now-incompatible RPM-based distros started out as
> RH offshoots.
Using RPMs was a crapshoot to begin with :-)
> We're *already* balkanizing the way Unix did.
In some respects, perhaps, but unlike the Unix problems, Linux still has
the same kernel and most of the same utilities, libraries etc.
> Mind you, this isn't always bad --- there is a lot of
> cross-fertilization, very much unlike the commercial Unixes. In many
> ways, the Linux distribution front is an example of "co-opetition" at
> its best.
Indeed. One of the biggest problems with Unix was the way vendor versions
exploded, with lots of different licensing fees and agreements, so every
version came with different libraries, desktop environments, compilers...
> But it's annoying when you find a package for a different Linux
> distribution which resists being repackaged for your distribution (or
> vice versa), generally because different distributions have different
> versions of the base software (kernel and/or libc).
In general, I just build from a source tarball. Sometimes if I'm feeling
lazy and there's "an RPM" (I very rarely see sites referring to them as
Red Hat packages, interestingly) I might use it, but not often.
James.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jun 15 2000 - 21:00:27 EST