[1032] in RedHat Linux List
Unidentified subject!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Doug Ridgway)
Fri Oct 25 20:58:36 1996
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 17:50:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Ridgway <ridgway@routh.UCSD.EDU>
To: Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>
Cc: redhat-list@redhat.com
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
On Fri, 25 Oct 1996 Erik wrote:
>On Fri, 25 Oct 1996, Doug Ridgway wrote:
> > The Netscape Java problem was analyzed, fixed, and a working RPM was
> > uploaded during the beta. I don't know what more I, as a beta tester, can
> > do.
> We don't ship libc's that are different then HJ's. This consensus among
> distribution makers is one of the few things that keeps Linux binaries
> compatible across distributions. I'm more interested in working with
> all of the binaries constantly updated to sunsite then with every version
> of Netscape (esp when there are workarounds for Netsacpe).
You don't understand. The libc RPM I made *is* HJ's. When compiling libc (as
distributed, with or without Red Hat's patches), the configuration script
asks you to choose a malloc. This is a tradeoff between (claimed) speed
and breaking some binaries, including Netscape. For people compiling libc
for themselves, this is fine. Youse pays your money, and youse takes your
choice. A commercial distributor, on the other hand, has to take into
account what will work best for the largest fraction of their customers.
Will they notice the speed difference? Will they want to use Netscape?
Will it just work or will it break mysteriously, with a solution involving
finding an outdated shared library, and writing shell scripts to convince
the system to load it?
I'm somewhat concerned about a cavalier attitude towards breaking
commercial binaries. It's a good way to make sure that commercial
companies don't port apps, or if they do, that they are sorry later.
doug.
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