Re: /usr/local news

Isak Savo wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 3:59 PM, Damjan Jovanovic <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I am hereby declaring that my attempts to convert a few commonly used
>> open source libraries to support /usr/local have failed :-(.
> 
> I'm sorry to hear that, although I'm also not completely surprised...
> It's a hard current you're trying to swim against.
> 
>> In brighter news, in Ubuntu 8.04, libc does support /usr/local. Looks
>> like /usr/local is supported by libc by default now,
>> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/libc.conf contains these 2 lines:
>> # libc default configuration
>> /usr/local/lib
>>
>> Seeing as libc was the only major library in Ubuntu that didn't
>> support /usr/local, it looks like we can now whitelist Ubuntu 8.04 as
>> a distribution on which installing to /usr/local does work properly.
> 
> This is indeed good news. If complaints arise again, I guess we can
> implement the whitelist code and immediately whitelist ubuntu 8.04.
> 
>> But it simply isn't going to work this way, with a tiny group of us
>> caring about cross-distribution compatibility and fd.o standards, and
>> the vast majority not knowing or caring, and even opposing us. I'm
>> contributing to Wine and Java - Linux as a platform for native
>> applications is largely dead to me at the moment.
> 
> :-(
> 
> I'd like to write some encouraging words here - that we're getting
> there and all that... but I kind of share the same thoughts as you.
> :-/
> 
> But hey - who knows... LSB has lately gotten a lot of focus so who
> knows what happens after the 4.0 release is out :)
> 
> /me is trying to be optimistic
> 
> -Isak

It's sad to see that nothing has changed after all these years. :( But 
good luck guys, I really admire your dedication!

 From what I can see, it was and still is more of a political problem 
than a technical problem. The challenge lies in finding supporters, not 
actually writing code. We're in a rather strange situation right now: 
the people who are in charge don't care, while the people who complain 
that Linux software installation should be easier aren't in charge, and 
both groups have already decided that the other group consists of 
idiots. On top of that, the people who aren't in charge, but either 
don't care or oppose to the idea, are very vocal.

I still read complaints about Linux software installation and 
cross-distro compatibility on places like Slashdot and OSNews. Would it 
be a good idea unite as many of these people as possible in an effort to 
convince distributions and the rest of the community that people care?

A while ago I had contacted the person who's behind the LSB packaging 
spec (Denis Washington) and had a debate with him. Despite opposition 
from community members - not unlike the opposition that our efforts got 
- he was fairly confident that the LSB will be alright. Perhaps you guys 
should contact him, he might be in a better position to lobby with 
distributions.

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