Warp wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> Um, no. It's because you can bundle all that stuff in with the 
>> application, but Linux doesn't.
> 
>   Linux? I thought you were talking about Firefox. Firefox != Linux.

Most Linux packages don't bundle all their dependencies into the 
package, primarily because most don't need to.  No, I wasn't talking 
about firefox except as an example of how Windows programs tend to be 
distributed with everything they need and Linux programs tending to rely 
on the package manager.

>   There's nothing stopping anyone from including whatever the program
> needs in the installation package (or even linking everything statically
> in the binary), but where do you draw the line? 

Dunno, really.  Good thing Linux has a package manager so you don't have 
to do that, isn't it? :-)

>   In Windows you are forced to always include everything in the package.
> Then you end up with the problem of your system having hundreds of thousands
> of dll files which you just can't delete because you can't know if something
> is using it.

Actually, the system does indeed keep track of that stuff. Tht's part of 
what's in the registry.  Of course, if your package isn't built right 
and it doesn't tell the system that it is using the DLL, then you have a 
problem when you uninstall the original provider of the package. Take a 
look, for example, at C:\Program Files\Common Files.

And of course, if you have different versions of DLLs that are supposed 
to be compatible but aren't, then it's a good thing you have lots of 
copies about.

> With a package manager you can try to remove some library, but
> if something requires that library, the package manager not only tells you
> that this is so, but it even tells you *which* apps require that library,
> and it even offers you the option of uninstalling also those apps if you
> want.

Yep. Windows only tells you it's in use. Of course, it's pretty easy to 
figure out which program is using it, by looking at the same parts of 
the registry that tells you it's in use.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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