But what about when companies change the location where certain programs are
kept? i.e. RedHat "broke" KDE when they decided to move it from /opt/kde to
/usr/bin (?) Now, the default RPMs that can be downloaded from kde.org will
no longer work with RedHat 6.0, so you can't upgrade to a newer version of
KDE and are stuck with their (IMNSHO) broken distribution.
Granted this is a minor annoyance, but it is an annoyance. Is this sort of
thing common, or is this an unusual happening? I am sure RedHat had a reason
for moving the location of KDE out of /opt, but I'll be darned if I know
what it is! :-)
John
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael B. Trausch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Charles Camp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 1999 12:33 AM
Subject: Re: Kernel/Program Compatability
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
> 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 Older QMAGIC binaries for Linux are *severely* outdated and do not run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! :-)
>
> - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
> Michael B. Trausch
> President of Linux Operations, ADK Computers
http://adk.hypermart.net/
> - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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