Zach Smith <zach@zcsmith.com> wrote:
My sincere apologies for the hijacking...I must have sent off from another thread. Rest assured it won't happen again.
Zach
Zack your apology is noted -- I considered making my reply to Anders, but I didn't want to put any more salt on an open wound --- at any rate -- i have the following (long) comment to your original post. Zach Smith asked the implied question in his topic line: Does SuSE deviate from "standards" First Herman Knief (herman_at_knief.net) replied: I believe what you want to look at is LSB (Linux Standards Base) (I would add see: http://www.linuxbase.org/ ) Next: Patrick Shanahan (WideGlide_at_FastMail.fm) on Mon Jun 09 2003 - 03:23:23 CEST wrote: "And *your* question has what to do with the thread "Enabling /home/*/public_html to be seen in my web page" which you have responded?" (snip) And then Thomas Jones, Hans Forbrich, and Anders Johansson each gave good analysis based on the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) and the Linux Standards Base (LSB) and their own expereriences why certain things are in certain places. Several of uour (Zack's) questions remain, including: Does SuSE use its own "recipe"? My take on this is SuSE is LSB compliant and will continue to be LSB compliant because that is what the big corporate clients (such as the banks) want. Thomas Jones asked if SuSE was LSB compliant: Fact or Fiction???!! Fact -- they are depending on the distro. However, getting LSB compliant has taken several steps. It included changes in "aaa_base" which as you recall SuSE upgraded for 8.0 in August of last year and again in April of this year. With regard to 8.2, SuSE is LSB compliant, per the following: The following products have been certified by The Open Group to the LSB Specifications during 1Q 2003: Date Company Product 06-Jan-03 Red Hat, Inc Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 with updates 07-Jan-03 Sun Wah Linux Ltd Sun Wah Linux Desktop 3.0 07-Jan-03 Turbo Linux Inc Turbolinux Enterprise Server 8 powered by UnitedLinux 15-Jan-03 Conectiva Inc Conectiva Linux Enterprise Edition Powered by UnitedLinux v1.0 24-Mar-03 SuSE Linux AG UnitedLinux 1.0 24-Mar-03 SuSE Linux AG SuSE Linux 8.2 28-Mar-03 SuSE Linux AG SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for IPF powered by UnitedLinux 01-Apr-03 Red Hat, Inc Red Hat Linux 9 However, the goal of the LSB is to develop and promote a set of standards that will increase compatability among Linux distributions and enable software applications to run on any compliant system. In addition, the LSB will help coordinate efforts to recruit software vendors to port and write products for Linux. There will still be variations between the different distributions. Further, as Anders explained depending upon the status of the release (beta or stable), the vendors (and developers) may put a program in different places at different times. Further, on my machine I have two different version of Mozilla: 1.2.1 which I use for my email and web browsing, and Mozilla 1.0 which I use with some of my "old" Gnome programs. The advantage of Linux (even given FSH/LSB/posix) is "i am in charge" of my box and the tools are available. If i don't like where something is I can move it, or create a copy and have it in two places at once. The reason for some of the changes in 8.1 and 8.2 (from 7.3 and 8.0) are related to becoming and remaining LSB compliant. Some of the reasons SuSE decided to stop supporting 7.0. and 7.1 were not just security issues, but LSB issues. It would have taken a lot to get those distros LSB certified. SuSE had to modify both the kernel and aaa_base on 8.0 from what had been issued in March of 2002. SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional with (August) aaa_base and a Kernel Update was declared compliant August 9th, 2002. If IIRC, the FHS formed part of the basis of the LSB; another leg is the IEEE POSIX standards http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/posix/. In addition to SuSE, Redhat and Mandrake are also committed to LSB compliance, as are other Linux distros. However. as I indicated above, the standards are still evolving following the IETF motto "rough consensus and running code." A new draft FHS is set to come out July 15 2003. LSB is likewise working on a new standard. And we know SuSE is committed to a new distro next fall or so. You didn't say what version of SuSE you are running, but which ever one it is you will have different problems depending on what applications and libraries you are running. As a result, although SuSE is compliant with the LSB, your problem of having a difficult time upgrading various software programs (dependency issues and such) from the software maker and must wait for a SuSE RPM to come out before guaranteeing success is a real one. However, I am sure you are aware of steps you can take to minimize it (running checksig, checking dependencies, and using programs like fou4s or apt-get, or making your own rpms). The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP) provided a nice write up by Binh Nguyen discussing the philosophy behind the FSH. It is a little dated but well worth reading. http://www.tldp.org/LDP/fhs/fhs6.pdf Further, as discussed on this list and elsewhere, many of the the "SuSE application" programs are not part of the official KDE distribution. SuSE warns: "Please be aware that most of the programs are still under development and may contain bugs. Some programs won't event run on your system or don't make sense without a special piece of software or hardware." http://www.suse.de/en/private/download/linuks/i386/update_for_8_2/extra.html The problem is compounded if you download programs from Slashdot or Wherever. Expect dependency problems. That is the fun of being at the cutting edge, but the tools are there and others are willing to give suggestions. HTH Gar -- "Sorry I wrote such a long email, I didn't have the time to write a short one." --- Mark Twain __________________________________________________________________ McAfee VirusScan Online from the Netscape Network. Comprehensive protection for your entire computer. Get your free trial today! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/computing/mcafee/index.jsp?promo=393397 Get AOL Instant Messenger 5.1 free of charge. Download Now! http://aim.aol.com/aimnew/Aim/register.adp?promo=380455