Binary incompatibility of Linux distributions

[Christopher Chan]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> 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_.
>   
Definitely more convenient on Linux that is for sure.

>> 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.
>   

:-D. That little bit of education can be daunting to some. When I was a 
computer instructor, I had to conduct Windows classes besides Linux 
ones. Some had trouble just with 'right click'. Such makes it a 
challenge when you have one part of the class breezing through and 
another part apparently trying to scale what is a mountain to them.