[NTLUG:Discuss] getting remote X servers?

[Steve Baker]

micky john wrote:

> Do you think that the lack of concrete standardization of the Linux
> structure deters businesses from helping w/the linux movement (drivers,
> apps, etc..)?
> I know that some standardization attempts are being made w/the linux
> filestructure, but it discourages me when I go to get an app or RPM, and
> there are 4 different versions.
> Where should the line be drawn w/Linux standards?

Well, source releases are generally no problem.  The fairly complex
games software that I wrote and support ports quite happily from one
Linux version to another with almost zero effort.

Binary releases have a harder time because the compilers are still
maturing and hence the glibc versions are changing in annoyingly
incompatible ways.

Add to that the kind of stupidity that happened with RedHat 7.0 where
they shipped a seriously unstable compiler for user applications and
a completely *different* compiler for the kernel - and you get a total
mess for people who want to ship binaries.

Exercises like the Linux Standards Base and the OpenGL ABI for Linux
(which I participated in preparing) are the way to solve these issues,
but it's an uphill struggle for standards developers to get the distribution
guys to promptly adhere to those decisions.

I would encourage people who are buying Linux distro's to avoid those that
don't follow the standards.  That plainly isn't happening because RedHat
still have something like 80% of the distro market *despite* the utter
screwup with RH 7.0.

-- 
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