Firefox 2 on Dapper

[Donn]

Hi,
> You get the source, unpack it, configure it, and it fails on some
> dependency. ...  you've got to rebuild 700 tarballs to keep everything 
working. ... That's what they call dependency hell, and for better or worse, 
it's a cornerstone of how this type of software works.  This is what distros 
are all about.  Dealing with all of this stuff for yourself is a real bitch.
What would you say the elemental difference is between the above and Windows 
2000/XP ?
I have written and distributed VB applications in my murky past. I recall 
having to include a reasonable amount of things like the ocx controls I was 
using and the runtime libraries (because they were not guaranteed to be 
installed), but after that I could rely on the GUI to work, I could rely on a 
rich and varied set of API calls to do any number of fancy things and that 
would always work from 95 to 2000 to XP.

What is it about Linux that changes so radically that these 6 month plateaus 
in its evolution are effectively quarantined from one another?

Do I have a point, or am I really off-base? I only ask to learn, not to 
complain without end.

> My approach is that I will try to build ... but if I start running into more 
than about two dependencies ... I pull the plug on the whole misbegotten 
project at that point.  It's usually doomed to fail.
I have done my share of configure && make && make install and I know what you 
mean. (I admit, never anything as complex as Rosegarden.)
I think the situation is sad. If I want to use the new stuff that developers 
have killed themselves putting into Rosegarden (for e.g.) -- I might have to 
upgrade to a whole new distro! And to expect the devs to keep producing 
binaries which maintain backwards support for every version of every distro 
is plain impossible. So, it seems to be a treadmill upwards for devs and 
users alike.

This would almost be okay if upgrades worked slicker that cat shit off 
linoleum but they don't. And one has to keep up with the pace too. I can't 
upgrade from Dapper (in 2 yrs time) to Irate Iguana because I have F-H to go 
in-between.

> I have no idea how any of this relates to the new version of Firefox.  It's
> definitely not anything I can't wait for Feisty to see.
Well, far as I can tell FF 2 in Dapper ain't gonna happen unless you go out of 
your way and make some compromises, which I for one am not at all sure I want 
to make.

Thanks for the input.

/d