On 2/26/07, Bayard Coolidge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
... the last dozen or two that I've tried don't seem to do the trick, and there's no x86_64.rpm available.
Good luck with that. A lot of video playback on Linux depends on ripping the libraries out of MS Windows. And since those are all built for x86-32, they're not going to work with an x86-64 binary. Some argue that things like mplayer (which specialize in such ripped libraries) are ultimately counter-productive for this reason. They're only useful if you happen to be running on x86-32.
It's these sort of nonsensical integration issues that will ultimately kill Linux, and I suspect it's what ESR was really complaining about.
Well, the DVD issue is far from nonsensical; it's legally mandated by the MPAA (who have bought and paid for said legislation). Sure, it's not a technical thing, and it's not something we like, but it is reality. There's very little we (as FOSS users) can do about it. (As constituents, we may have more of a say, but that's another problem domain entirely.) Now, if you buy a commercial, closed-source DVD player for Linux, things will probably improve dramatically. Whether or not that is an acceptable solution is up to you. Going to the bigger binary compatibility picture in general, I suspect this is one of those hard problems. It may be that there simply is not good answer, just like there is no answer for "easy, one-size-fits-all security". Sure, point to MS Windows. Ever notice how MS Windows seems to have, well, stability problems? Guess what: A great deal of that comes from binary compatibility issues. It's just that on MS Windows, there's no mechanism (like RPM or dpkg) to tell you that those dependencies exist. Program A's installer just throws a bunch of DLLs at the system and hopes for the best. That will frequently get Program A to work, but might break program Q that was working fine for two years. I'd rather have Linux tell me that something isn't going to work, then Windows, where I have to hope and pray it will ever work. -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
