[plug] Easy Installation: Linux Desktop Market

[simon]

Leon Brooks (leon at cyberknights.com.au) wrote:

> The Windows way is to bundle every single dependency into the installer
> program, which bloats them and leads directly to a multitude of
> semi-compatible copies of the same thing floating around the machine,
> with results you may well imagine (or observe, if you're not so
> fortunate).
>

Just so you know, when I explained the concept of libraries to my noob father
he almost immediately said soemthing like this, but more from a perspective of
'I guess windows apps dont share many libraries because one company doesnt
want to support another'. Its quite an eye opener to realise this - for most
intents and purposes DLLs are completely useless in windows environment,
beyond the system DLLs. You might as well statically compile your app.

He also said to me last night 'Windows is like buying a car and being told to
shutup and drive. Linux is like buying a car and having the salesman hand you
a full workshop manual'. Being technically minded, he prefers the latter :)
Quite amazing to watch him take a few simple concepts and come up with ideas
about 'how it should work', which more often than not are similar to the way
it actually works. Last night he asked me how linux knows the difference
between a file its allowed to execute (or as he put it 'convert from the HD to
machine code'), and a data file like a document or something. He proposed
there must be some distinguishing factor beyond the executable bits. I showed
him 'file', and explained ELF to him. I imagine he's at home trying 'file' on
lots of different files right now :)

--
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Simon Scott
simon at chrome64.org
mob: 0409113359
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