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Pawe³ Madej posted <43342BD3.8000004@××××××××.info>, excerpted below, on |
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Fri, 23 Sep 2005 18:22:43 +0200: |
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|
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> Hello, |
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> |
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> I've found a news that LSB Release3 [1] was announced. So there is my |
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> question. Are Gentoo Foundation and Gentoo Developers developing Gentoo |
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> Linux in coordinance with standards provided by this specification? |
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> |
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> Could someone give me reasons why yes or no? |
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|
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Note that I'm simply a user and in no way speak officially for Gentoo. |
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However, this issue has been of interest to me, so I've some observations |
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on the Gentoo/LSB interaction. Hopefully, however, my reply will save |
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some developer from having to compose one, meaning they can spend the time |
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on doing stuff I don't have the skills for, all those new ebuilds! =8^) |
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|
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No, Gentoo is not, basically because much of the standard only makes sense |
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for binary distributions, not from-source (meta)distributions like Gentoo, |
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and/or for all-at-once release upgrades, not incrementally upgraded as it |
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comes out distributions like Gentoo. Additionally, normal all-at-once |
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releases only have one version of things like KDE installed at a time, |
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where Gentoo slots them, so multiple versions may be installed at the same |
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time without conflicting (very much) with each other. The LSB makes |
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little if any allowance for this sort of thing. |
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|
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Keep in mind that the LSB is really targeted at binary-only products, |
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regardless of what distribution the product is to be run on. If it's |
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available under an open source license, then a distribution can distribute |
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it and manage support of any changes it has to make. Those who refuse to |
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open their source thus face the problem of supporting all the diverse |
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distributions out there, where the distributions would be providing |
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support for at least the differing stuff themselves, if they were given |
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the chance with open source. Thus, it's those closed source vendors who |
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tend to support stuff like the LSB the strongest. (I must say that IMO |
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Gentoo does pretty good with even closed source, tho, considering the |
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number of ebuilds available and supported, to aid in the installation of |
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closed source apps. =8^) |
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|
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All that said, as for any distribution, the closer Gentoo can be to normal |
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FHS locations and the like, the closer it keeps to assumptions made by |
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even open source developers about stuff like lib64 vs lib vs lib32 on |
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hardware that handles dual bitness (like amd64, my arch, therefore my |
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interest in the subject), for instance, the less changes Gentoo devs must |
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make to even open source apps, as compared to upstream. Thus, it makes |
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sense for Gentoo to maintain compatibility where it doesn't conflict too |
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strongly with other Gentoo goals or policies, since being different means |
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more work than abiding by the standard. Gentoo can be and is different |
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where it makes sense to be based on what Gentoo /is/, but it tends to |
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follow pretty closely the defined standards where there's no strong reason |
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/not/ to do so, because it just makes life simpler that way. |
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|
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What this all means in brief is that Gentoo in general abides by the |
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LSB/FHS where doing so doesn't come in conflict with Gentoo's own |
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priorities. Assuming Gentoo users are comfortable with Gentoo and its |
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priorities or they'd be using a different distribution, it will follow |
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that most of them will also be comfortable with how Gentoo treats the LSB, |
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because to treat it differently would mean compromising part of the |
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priorities that help make Gentoo what it is. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman in |
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http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html |
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|
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-- |
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