[ILUG] Linux Frustration

[Liam Bedford]

On Fri, Sep 28, 2001 at 12:45:14PM +0100, Dermot Beirne came forth with:
> 
> Hi All,
> This is where my experience of Linux gets frustrating.  The Etherape
> program is tiny, but it's dependencies are a different issue.  Etherape
> would not install as it needs libpcap, which I downloaded and attempted to
> install.  That would not work because it needed libptool.  I got that and
> attempted to install.  That would not work because it needed libxml, or
> vice versa, I can't remember.
Yes... this is a problem with a distro that is based solely on RPM.

However, things have moved on a long way (really), and Redhat have their
up2date program (IIRC), suse has yast, and I'm sure Mandrake has a program
that can figure out dependencies. Ximian have red-carpet. 

Connectiva went the whole hog, and moved to apt on top of RPM. Apt is the
bees knees IMO for this kind of thing (especially if you're not trying to
track debian sid <g>). It will do all the dependency checking for you.

> 
> This is very frustrating for someone who is trying to use linux
> productively, and more so for someone who is trying to get it accepted in
> an organisation who are dubious.
> 
> This may be a specific example, but I don't find it terribly unusual with
> linux, and was wondering what others thought.
> 
> After downloading libxml, and following install instructions, the file the
> instructions say to edit, does not exist.  As a result, my efforts to get
> Etherape installed, ends here (because of my limited experience more than
> anything else)
> 
this is a problem with the differences between the distibution version of
the package and the upstream (maintainer) version. It seems to happen quite
a bit, where distributions bundle the original readme even though they've
changed the file locations etc.

> I don't want to get attacked by people who seek to "defend" linux, or
> anyone picking errors in my example above, its a general question that i'd
> just like a straightforward plain english answer to please.
> 
Windows has exactly the same problems btw. You don't generally see it as
much on installation because every program comes with every library it
needs, but you'll see it after a while. Also known as DLL Hell, it's a state
that Windows (and linux boxes now) descend into after a while, because each
app has installed their own version of ctl3d.dll and now you've got 5
different programs, all expecting certain bugs in it and crashing because
someone carefully fixed it.

> PS - Yes I know Red Hat 6.1 is now "old", etc. but I don't have the time
> now to start setting up a 7.1 machine.
That's a pity, because you would have a better experience with it, or the
latet SuSE (ack spit) or hopefully Mandrake. 

Even after a while, with Debian Woody.

L.
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