Binary incompatibility of Linux distributions

[Steven Susbauer]

On Wed, 13 May 2009 13:55:16 -0500, Derek Broughton <derek at pointerstop.ca>  
wrote:

> Verde Denim wrote:
>
>> remember that when a new "kernel upgrade" is out for windows, it's a new
>> version, with a new price tag. The *NIX philosophy is more along the  
>> lines
>> of "here's something that we did to improve/secure the system a bit  
>> better
>
> That's not entirely fair - MS _does_ give you practically daily bugfixes  
> for
> the kernel you bought...
>

This is true. The one thing they don't do is large updates of system and  
toolchain that break compatibility (well, generally, XP SP2 did break some  
apps, and I'm sure other updates have too).

Most binaries work fine (outside of the packaging formats), but there will  
always be some that refuse to work without being recompiled for the new  
base they're running on. I do not think it will be possible to have  
complete binary compatibility unless you can, more or less, make every  
version of Linux identical with a different theme even above and beyond  
standardizing directory usage and such. Just getting Debian binaries to  
work on Ubuntu (or build using our processes) often takes quite a bit of  
work, and we are extremely similar.

  -Steve