DVM - D Version Manager 0.2.0

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Wed, 18 May 2011 03:15:50 -0400, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:

> But the bottom line seems to be: Linux is in a bigger DLL hell than  
> windows
> has ever been, and I don't think *anyone* actually knows how to do it.

This is one of the side effects of having open source software.  Since  
everything on linux is expected to be open source, it's expected that you  
simply recompile everything for your system.  In this respect, Windows has  
Linux beat hands down.  A hardware company that builds a driver needs only  
to support one compiled driver that just keeps working no matter how many  
times XP is updated.

I think reading some of the issues with MacOSX breaking dmd builds by  
going through a *point* revision, it sounds like MacOSX is just as bad.

At my previous company, we integrated software from pure software  
companies into their required OSes and hardware, and did all the  
OS/hardware dirty work for them (i.e. we turned pure software into an  
appliance).  One of the *worst* problems was when the customer wanted some  
version of Linux, and let's say they had a specific kernel build.  Because  
of the expectation from the Linux kernel that you just recompile all your  
drivers, any RAID card (a very common requirement) which had proprietary  
driver code would require us to contact the hardware vendor, and have them  
rebuild the RAID driver on their specific kernel (for a not-so-nominal fee  
of course, with very little support).

I fantasized about building my own linux kernel that had zero  
configuration options, and would never break driver compatibility between  
point revisions.  Such a kernel would allow hardware companies to release  
one driver and have it work for any system that used their hardware and  
that kernel.  I can't imagine hardware companies love supporting umpteen  
driver versions multiplied by umpteen linux vendors (generally they only  
pick one vendor and support that).  Of course, that dream would be  
impossible to realize without tremendous effort, which I don't have.

Ah well.

-Steve