Binary incompatibility of Linux distributions

[Derek Broughton]

Chan Chung Hang Christopher wrote:

> Derek Broughton wrote:
>>
>> No, he said it was just a matter of "./configure; make; make install" -
>> which is not the same thing as saying it's easy enough for any old user.
>>   
> No, he said: "The difference here is that Linux actually makes installing
> 
> from source so easy, relatively speaking, it becomes a visible option to
> the masses, whereas in Windows word, that kind of procedure would be way
> too daunting to even be considered among non-developers."

Precisely.  It is _viable_ (ie, "possible"), not necessarily _easy_.
> 
> and 'I' asked him whether he thinks
> 'tar zxf tarball.tgz, cd tarball, ./configure, make,
> make install'
> is 'so easy'.

And it's not - but it's also not beyond most users ability with a little 
education.
-- 
derek