On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:26:20 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> Yeah. It's great when it works like that. But sometimes it decides
>>> that it wants to install version X of the thing you asked for, which
>>> depends on a completely different version of something critical - GCC,
>>> the Linux kernel, libc, whatever. Obviously, replace that and you have
>>> to replace half the software on your HD. :-}
>> 
>> Funny, I don't run into that problem - and generally haven't in the
>> nearly 15 years I've been running Linux.
>> 
>> You *can* run into this if you use nonstandard repos regularly, but I
>> don't.  What's in a repo like the openSUSE repos is tested so that
>> these types of conflicts don't occur.
> 
> I'm guessing KNOPPIX is configured to look for something silly. When I
> tried to repeat the process with Ubuntu, it was fairly painless. I
> remember Gentoo was always a PITA though... and Debian, for that matter.
> (Debian was years ago tho.)

Well, KNOPPIX is primarily designed to run from the disc as I recall, so 
it makes sense that package management wouldn't be as robust as on full-
on distributions.

>>> This, of course, completely defies the entire purpose of shared
>>> libraries! :-D
>> 
>> Of course it does.  But you were lamenting that "This never happens in
>> Windows" - this is a big part of the reason why.
> 
> I think maybe like Darren said, people on Windows try to minimise
> dependencies. For example, I remember trying to set up an email program
> and discovering that you can't install it unless you have sound enabled
> in the Linux kernel. (WTF?) Because the package manager thinks foomail
> depends on libsound, or something.

Well, here again, this isn't something that I have recently run into.  
But you can generally override the dependencies if you want; I converted 
a Debian package to run on openSUSE (a video converter called HandBrake), 
and the library dependencies weren't met because the library is called 
something else on Debian (and yes, I do find that kinda frustrating).  So 
I installed with --nodeps and linked to the library name on openSUSE.  
Works perfectly.

But that was the exception in my experience.


>>>> I never use IRC to ask for help - just never needed that sort of
>>>> immediacy.
>>> No - this was for help with the open-source project I'm trying to
>>> contribute to, not for Linux. ;-)
>> 
>> And questions about VirtualBox (for example) are not out of place in an
>> appropriate Ubuntu or openSUSE community group.
> 
> Even if you want to know which one would be the best choice to run
> Ubuntu on your Windows box? ;-)

Sure, why not?  You think that people in the Ubuntu forums only ever run 
their distro on real hardware?

>>> I added a section to the user manual. (Which is written in something
>>> called "docbook", by the way.)
>> 
>> Very cool.  Make sure you note that for your CV as well, things like
>> that can be useful.
> 
> And you think I embarked on this crazy mission, *why*?? 0;-)

Good lad. ;-)

Jim

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