On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 07:28:58PM +0530, Manoj Joseph wrote: > > > Distros is a different issue altogether. These are merely > > compilations of user space software on distro preferred > > init systems and layout. > > Distros, IMHO, do a lot more that compile a few user space > software for you.
The other things are also annotated above, but in brief. > > Maybe I am missing the context. But without standards, you > would find it difficult to compile the sources to run from > anywhere. > The standards are in context of the push by openstandards.org kind of thing, where standardisation is sought at the upper most layers of application locations. At core level things are quite standardised as it is with minor variations between various implimentations of *nix. As regards compilations, if one knows how to set up ld.so.conf (or the library switches of the compiler directly) anything will compile from anywhere. That is actually how all systems are built from the toolchain before the chrooted first boot into the nascent system. > I don't think this is a non issue at all. And I don't see > sysadmins hand compiling everything from the scratch, and > doing that everytime there is a patch released... This is correct. For production systems stability is paramount. Very few do a binary upgrade too with frequencies seen with desktops. Changes are made very slowly where necessary (unless it is a security issue) mandated by changing requirements, and certainly not for every patch. Till about 2 months back sourceforge.net was on kernel 2.4.xx, mine still is :-( An update is coming though ... but slowly, with every component thoroughly tried and tested ... Bish
