Jan-Henrik said:
> AFAIK he's thinking primarily of the different libc versions on Linux,
> and that Linux distributions comes in different configurations, i.e. a
> Linux dist. is not really as homogeneous as we like to think it is.
I think that's a very well put explanation. There are so many
configurations of Linux, that it is hard to find a version to compile
against where users can reliably get applications to work.
This is a serious problem for the Linux community. It makes it hard
for closed source software to be provided on Linux. Sun are reluctant
to get into it; several companies that used to provide Linux ports
have withdrawn them because they can't find a way of providing them
stably. When I was a real commercial developer, porting and OS
versions were the biggest nightmare we had.
It also affects users, who have to be very aware of which version of
various different shared libraries they have installed. Frequently
collections of software require different, and occasionally
conflicting, versions of the libraries. This is fine for systems with
full-time administrators, but causes other users (like me) no end of
headaches.
The same problem is not present with MS operating systems because the
releases remain for a long time (a couple of years). Users have to
put up with the bugs for that long though.
Apple provide major versions of software every few years with updates,
which are by and large compatible, every so often.
There is an argument that Unix is more complex, and this model could
not easily be applied. In fact, Sun is a good example of an
organisation that successfully manages that process. Applications
compiled for Solaris 5.x will run on most of the OS versions without
problems. This allows users to install quickly and with confidence
applications that have been precompiled for that series of operating
system versions.
If you are under the impression that this is how Linux works too, I
would suggest that you look again carefully.
Simon Read
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