On 2/13/06, Ronald G Minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov> wrote:
>
> Lyndon Nerenberg wrote:
> >> GNU/Linux is what all Unixes try to emulate as closely as possible
> >> this days;
> >
> >
> >
> > Excuse me?
>
> hmm. What uriel may be saying is that a lot of open source software,
> allegedly portable, is really only "portable" to different Linux
> distros. I have seen this more and more in recent years. Just take any
> of a dozen chunks of "portable" code and try to build it on mac osx, for
> example. All too often, if tails.


This seems very true... For better or worse, I've got KDE commit bits from a
long time ago [well for me anyway].  I have always tried to use FreeBSD as
my main development platform but it never seems to pan out well for me.  The
code has gotten better in that a lot of modules either don't rely on a piece
of seemingly "linux-only" software [like cdparanoia, I don't think that's a
requirement for CD ripping anymore, that or they ported it to FreeBSD as
some point].

The problem compounds itself when big projects shoot for reusing other
smaller project's code.  Code that probably only works on Linux and due to
hardwired ioctl calls or something can't be easily ported to other OSes.



It is also the case that some non-Linux OSes have felt pressure to add
> Linux-like features ...


Like new ioctl calls, or linux compatibility layers.


ron
>