Firefox 2 on Dapper

Art Alexion art.alexion at verizon.net
Wed Jan 17 16:31:11 UTC 2007


On Wednesday 17 January 2007 10:20, Donn wrote:

> > Second, the way Windows apps search for
> > libraries benefits in this instance only in that they (these days) search
> > in \Program Files\Common Files\<app or company name> then in the system
> > folder.  If you look at \Program Files\Common Files\ you are likely to
> > find lots of copies of the same libraries, sometimes different versions. 
> > Before w2k  and this hierarchy, conflicting versions of libraries caused
> > frequent windows crashes.
>
> So, Windows has a clever way to allow apps to search for the libs they need
> while Linux has only one copy of the libs and no way for apps to look for
> others. Yeah?

No.  Windows apps shearch their own sub-folder of the Program Files\Common 
Files hierarchy. Then, if they don't find it there, they search the \winnt 
and \winnt\system folders.  There is always a danger, if they don't find it 
in Program Files\Common Files\<program> that they will find the wrong version 
in \winnt\*, leading to problems.


> <wishful thinking>
> If so then I would hope that some way is found to imitate the
> search-for-libs thing Windows does, as this would mean distros can have
> lives > 6 to 12 months!
> </wishful thinking>

No.  This would be contrary to Linux/open source model of software components.  
Windows has to do it that way because most of the software that runs on it is 
proprietary.  This is not a good thing.  It is a way that relies on cheap ram 
and hard disc space rather than good design.

>
> > Use /opt for totally self-contained apps like Firefox, OpenOffice,
> > Oracle, etc.
>
> Right - got ya. Thanks. I'm going to assume it's no diff to using a dir in
> my home folder. Totally enclosed either way.
>
> > Use /usr/local for apps that want to use the standard locations for
> > libraries but are not native to your distro.  They should the /usr/local
> > tree should resemble your /usr tree with lib, share, bin and other
> > subdirectories. This keeps them from interfering with your distro.
>
> This one has me a little confused. I confess I have never been really been
> 'at home' with /usr/local. What would the diff be between an app in
> /usr/local and one in /opt ? I mean that app can still think of /opt as
> it's root and find /opt/bin and /opt/share etc. No?


 Let me repeat:
> > Use /opt for totally self-contained apps like Firefox, OpenOffice,
> > Oracle, etc.
>
> > Use /usr/local for apps that want to use the standard locations for
> > libraries but are not native to your distro.  They should the /usr/local
> > tree should resemble your /usr tree with lib, share, bin and other
> > subdirectories. This keeps them from interfering with your distro.
>
-- 

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