Subject: Re: Need for Cross Platform Updates Distribution

From: Michel Dänzer <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 11:13:10 +0200

Hollis Blanchard wrote:

> Of course you usually *can* get a foreign rpm to install,

I know, I've updated a few hopelessly outdated packages on the SuSE 6.4 at
work using RedHat RPMs.

> it's just that it's not unusual for it not to work with your system (or may
> break other things in your system). Since neither company is testing their
> software packages for compatibility with the other, this is not unexpected.

Thanks, I think I understand the problem.

> linuxbase.org needs to be a little better about organizing their website it
> seems...

Sorry, forgot to mention www.freestandards.org

> > > I should also note that Debian packages also don't work well with other
> > > distributions.
> >
> > But at least there aren't incompatible flavours of debs - you find a deb
> > somewhere, you install it, it works.
>
> Debian is of course a single organization (and honestly I don't know
> anything about Corel or Storm or any compatibility issues there - isn't
> Corel using an old glibc?).

The .deb dependancy system won't let you install a package which wouldn't work
unless you really really want to.

> If only RedHat used RPM, you can bet any rpm you could find would work.

True. A good point for .deb IMHO ;)

Michel

--
Why drink & drive when you can smoke and fly???
______________________________________________________________________________
Earthling Michel Dänzer (MrCooper)  \  CS student and free software enthusiast
Debian GNU/Linux (powerpc,i386) user \   member of XFree86, Team *AMIGA*, AUGS

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