Why does the gcc package provide /usr/bin/gcc instead of using alternatives system?

[Adam Conrad]

Mike Fedyk wrote:
> 
> In Dapper, the gcc package provides a symlink from /usr/bin/gcc ->
> /usr/bin/gcc-4.0 and does not use the alternatives system.

GCC has never used, and never will use, the alternative system.  For
each release, we dictate what the default compiler will be using the
symlink in question, and having it easily breakable, as alternatives
are, would lead to too many support headaches: People compiling apps
that link against libraries with incompatible ABIs, and the like,
because they switch the link... That sort of thing.

> I noticed this while helping a friend set up vmware server on their 
> system.  It needs gcc-3.4 to build the kernel modules.

Install gcc-3.4, and "export CC=gcc-3.4" for the duration of your kernel
build.

... Adam