>And yet the symlinks are managed at the OS level - in this case,
>Fedora's PackageKit.  See previous message.  Users who want specific
>versions can point directly to those versions, and users who only want
>the most recent point to the symlink.

OK, but that option is not available to all users (possibly the majority).

The fundamental question is: what problem does embedding the version number in 
the JAR file names actually solve? The only arguments I've seen so far are:
- it allows a developer to easily see which version is in use - OK, but the 
directory-based approach also offers this
- it allows us to more easily install to RedHat Linux - OK, but our primary use 
cases are web deployment via applets or Web Start, not native RedHat 
installations

The main argument I have against it is that it creates more work for 
developers. RedHat library issues aside, what do we actually lose by not 
including the version numbers in the file names?

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