[NTLUG:Discuss] Upgrade breaks things

[brian@pongonova.net]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 11:10:45AM -0500, Bobby Wrenn wrote:
> I thought upgrades were only supposed to break things with that other OS.

Unfortunately, this is one myth that never seems to die.  With the
proliferation of "new" libraries with "new" interfaces (whatever
happened to interfaces remaining the same, and improving the
implementation?), along with n different file directory schemes, Linux
has fast become the same upgrade hell many of us left M$ for.  I have
an old SuSE distro I've painstakingly updated to roughly the "state of
the art" as of middle of last year.  Guess what?  I can compile
roughly 75% of the software I download...the other 25% fails to
compile due to "unsupported libraries," "obsolete libraries," or any
of a number of different excuses.  I don't even bother with binary
distributions -- many are compiled against cutting-edge share libs, so
those of use without the latest RH distro are simply SOL.

Backwards compatibility is quickly becoming an endangered species in
the O/S world.  Where do we turn to next?

  --Brian