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Ryan Gordon Wants To Bring Universal Binaries To Linux

Posted by timothy on from the grossly-obese-binaries dept.

wisesifu writes "One of the interesting features of Mac OS X is its 'universal binaries' feature that allows a single binary file to run natively on both PowerPC and Intel x86 platforms. While this comes at a cost of a larger binary file, it's convenient on the end-user and on software vendors for distributing their applications. While Linux has lacked such support for fat binaries, Ryan Gordon has decided this should be changed."

3 of 487 comments (clear)

  1. Re:We need 1-file installs by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > It's dead simple. We need something like this in Linux.

    "aptitude install " (or the pointy-clicky equivalent) works for me.

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  2. oh boy, just pack all archs on a .deb by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    you know, just trick the good ol' .DEB package format to include several archs, then let to dpkg decide wich binaries to extract.

    is not that in linux the binaries are one big blob with binaries, libs, images, videos, heplfiles, etc. all ditributed in as a single "file" which is actualy a directory with metadata that the finder hides as being a "program file".

    being able to copy a binary ELF from one box to another doesn't guarantee it'll work, specially if it's GUI apps that may require other support files, so fat binaries in linux would be simply a useless gimmick. either distribute fat .DEBs, or just do the Right Thing(tm): distribute the source.

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    What ? Me, worry ?
  3. Unix (OSF) tried it with ANDF by Alain+Williams · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Architecture Neutral Distribution Format was tried some 20 years ago. The idea was to have a binary that could be installed on any machine. From what I can remember it involved compiling to some intermediate form and when installed compilation to the target machine code was done.

    It never really flew.

    If someone wants to do this then something like Java would be good enough for many types of software. There will always be some things for which a binary tied to the specific target is all that would work; I think that it would be better to adopt something that works for most software rather than trying to achieve 100%.