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The state of binary compatibility on Linux and how to address it

(jangafx.com)
196 points generichuman | 3 comments | 01 Apr 25 22:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.624s | source
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inftech ◴[02 Apr 25 10:47 UTC] No.43555394[source]▶
I think the problem is that people treat Linux as OS instead of just a kernel.

You should assume every Linux distro is a different OS so when you are shipping your app for Linux you're actually shipping your app for Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu etc

replies(2): >>43555631 #>>43558151 #
1. rollcat ◴[02 Apr 25 11:36 UTC] No.43555631[source]▶
That's the sane way to tackle it. If you're the vendor, just target the top N (whatever value of N you can cope with).

I don't mean disrespect towards people running Alpine (hi), Arch, or Gentoo, but you wouldn't be running these distros if you aren't ready to handle their quirks.

TFA mostly talks about binary compat. Even if you can get away with statically linking everything, you still have to cope with the mess that is userspace fragmentation: <https://tailscale.com/blog/sisyphean-dns-client-linux>

So yeah, supporting the top N gets you approximately sqrt(N/(N+1))% of the way. (Assuming desktop Linux market share is about 1%.)

replies(1): >>43556610 #
2. HideousKojima ◴[02 Apr 25 13:43 UTC] No.43556610[source]▶
>I don't mean disrespect towards people running Alpine (hi), Arch, or Gentoo, but you wouldn't be running these distros if you aren't ready to handle their quirks.

You'd think so, but you'd be surprised how many gamers switching from Windows to Linux get recommended Arch and Manjaro

replies(1): >>43556704 #
3. skyyler ◴[02 Apr 25 13:53 UTC] No.43556704[source]▶
I see Bazzite recommended more than Arch these days, but Arch is confusingly a very popular choice.

I wonder if Arch being the basis for SteamOS is responsible.