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Theo Zourzouvillys wrote: > On Sunday 17 September 2006 08:41, Simon Waters wrote: >> Not that GCC has many binary >> incompatible upgrades, but it does happen. > > *cough*. > > GNU/Linux is the worst out of all for binary compatibility. both between > versions of the same distribution and different distributions. Although that may be there are simply more variants out there. I think it a mistake to classify "GNU/Linux" as an OS, you should compare a distro to something like MacOSX, or Windows, otherwise you'll be perpetually unhappy, and confused. > personally i reckon it's a conspiracy - Stallman doesn't want binary only > applications, right? :-) The kernel API is down to Linus, he does it for technical reasons, not principles. Oracle use to ship the Makefile with the RDBMS products to let you relink the object code for their Unix platforms. Scarily I had to use this to fix a bug in Oracle for HP-UX once, and then let Oracle know how to fix it<sigh>. This approach lets you ship object code and still handle most things but changes in the object code format. But hey I'm not here to figure out how to ship proprietary software for free operating systems, suffice to say Oracle manage it quite well, but then they only certify a limited range of distros. But yes, I think most people running GNU/Linux are doing it because either it is better for them in some way (so they don't care about the issue, because they aren't developing), or because they want to use free software (so it isn't an issue). > The WIN32 API, as evil as it may be at times, is stable and supported for > years and years. Arguably one of Microsoft's problems, but great for > software vendors. When was the last time you had to compile something from > source in windows just so it would run? Hey I mostly only use Windows when something needs fixing, so my view of it might not be very balanced. I sure do wish I had the code to Dreamweaver through, as it is the only Windows app I've used significantly recently, and it crashes all over the place. Although, the main reason I compile anything for Debian, except chess programs, is to help fix bugs, not just to make it run. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html