Re: Discussion about why GNU/Linux system upgrades cause old programs to break

On Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 12:02:49PM +0200, Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide wrote:
> <[email protected]> writes:
> >> To avoid that can install a library explicitly
> >> (e.g. via =apt-get install libpng-dev= for the dev headers of libpng)
> >> then after an update, libpng-dev stays available.
> >
> > Typically there is more to that. Usually, different versions of a library
> > are not co-installable in Debian. The newer version [1] replaces the older
> > (there are exceptions, but that means having different packages for
> > different versions of the library).
> 
> Yes, there’s nuance. For example I maintain a Java program that still
> supports Java 8. I now have a debian oldstable VM with manual fudges to
> keep the openjdk 8 (with icedtea) available. Using a more recent version
> of Java to compile pulls in the wrong libraries so it’s not actually
> Java 8 compatible.

On the flip side, Debian has superb support for cross-building packages
for other OS versions and architectures, so you can even build packages
for a Debian Arm 64 Trixie running on a Debian AMD 64 bookworm.

Someone gotta pay the price :)

Cheers
-- 
t

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