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On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Charles Camp wrote:
>
> Say ABC company has a distribution with kernel 1.2.3.4 and XYZ company
> has a distribution with the same kernel. On the distribution CDs each
> company has different "optional" programs such as word manipulators,
> e-mail, usenet, web browsers etc.
>
Generally, if a program is in the ELF or a.out formats (the two binary
formats that the Linux kernel supports natively, among others) it will
then run no matter what kernel version you're running starting with 2.0.
Older QMAGIC binaries for Linux are *severely* outdated and do not run
well on newer kernels, if at all, because of the odd format that they were
in. No one uses QMAGIC binaries anymore anyway, unless they use a very
early pre 1.x or 1.x Linux kernel. The current stable kernel is 2.2.10, I
believe, the latest development kernel is 2.3.7 I think. (I may be wrong
on either or both; I haven't checked recently on either.)
> Would the programs from one company run on the system set up with the
> other companies distribution and installation assuming the kernels
> were the same version number?
>
Yes. See the answer above. One small quirk: It also depends on the
library set that a given program uses. If distribution X is based on
library set A, and distribution Y is based on library set B, then you have
to install the libraries from distribution X for a distribution X program
to run on distribution Y, and vice versa.
> Is there any effort to make the newer kernel "backward compatible"
> with previous kernels? As would a program written for kernel 1.2.0.0
> "probably" (maybe "should") run on kernel 1.2.3.4?
>
For the most part, yes... except for QMAGIC which I discussed earlier (and
maybe other more miniscule ones). For the most part, kernel releases are
adding features -- not obsoleting older features. Keep in mind that Linux
is an open source project and therefore has an immeasurable collective IQ
- -- whereas Microsoft and other companies have a *VERY* finite collective
IQ unless they opensource their projects, of course. Companies try to
make things inconvient, using methods such as making things totally
incompatable from release to release. Linux, and it's application
programs for the most part, do not to this -- it's a waste of time, unless
there's a reason to do it (like the world needs a newer system that
includes features X, Y, and Z, and the current system can't provide for
that).
> I have noted that various "commercial distribution packages" each
> extol the super greatness of their individual package.
Well, it's business. Each distribution of Linux has it's up/down falls,
and as such, you need to look at what you want before you get it. They're
all compatable with each other -- it's just that the included programs and
target users are different. It's still the same OS.
> Within the trade is there a tendency for each company the "quirk"
> their distribution so that only their distributed programs will work
> on that installation and work only with that distribution or would the
> software be easily transportable?
>
Oh, no. No, no, no... that would totally defeat the purpose of Linux!
:-)
> Thank you for any enlightenment you may offer.
That would be what we're here for! :-)
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Michael B. Trausch
President of Linux Operations, ADK Computers http://adk.hypermart.net/
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PGP Public Key is available at hkp:[EMAIL PROTECTED], or at:
http://wcnet.org/~mtrausch/pubkey.txt, or finger:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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ADK Computers, Walbridge Office E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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