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Three Major Linux Distributions Certified LSB Compliant

Posted by timothy on from the oh-you're-so-compliant dept.

KevinDumpsCore writes "RedHat, Mandrake, and SuSE are now certified LSB compliant!" Here's the announcement on the Free Standards Group's site. The Linux Standards Base (check out these related Slashdot posts) has been working for years to perhaps tame the what-lives-where cross-distro craziness. (Of course, distro makers are under no obligation to comply with the LSB's choices.)

2 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. RPM... by matman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's too bad that the LSB people havn't yet taken on packaging issues. They've effectively chickened out by just recommending RPM. The best features of RPM, DEB and the BSD ports system should be reflected in a new packaging format for people to work towards using. Not only should this format be recommended by the LSB, but the LSB should define policies for the use of the format - package name and version formats, dependencies and package alias names, source package handling, non-official packages, etc. This really is necessary to get distribution of commercial software on Linux; testing for and supporting distribution differences is just too expensive for most companies. This is not to say that everyone supporting RPM won't help, but rather that policies are needed to really make it work, and that we may as well get a more optimal package management system happening :)

    1. Re:RPM... by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The BSD ports setup pretty much requires source distribution and the target audience for LSB isn't interested in that.

      BSD also has binary packages, which mesh with the ports system. They're .tgz packages with the normal pre and postinstall scripts available in the package. I always thought of the BSD system as pretty slick, a source model and a binary package model that mesh well. Anything I installed from ports I remove with the package tools. I can check for new versions of all externally installed software (packages and ports) with the same command. They blend well enough for me that I kind of see them as one system.