RE: CNN / InfoWorld article on Linux vs. NT (with some AS/400 ref eren ces)

Lurton wrote:
>But don't we end up with a confusing thousands of different versions of
the OS?
>This is the same problem we have with application software.  There reaches
a
>point where PTF's for the application can't be applied because the
>underlying code has been changed so much it doesn't even resemble the
>initial version.  Each PTF then has to be hand-applied.  We don't even pay
>maintenance our some of our software because the modifications are too
>expensive to apply and a lot of them fix things we have all ready fixed or
>don't use.

In general, fixes and enhancements are normally sent back to the author
of the code, or to some central source repository.  So there's really
little fragmentation.

Certainly, there's no formal release structure as with the AS/400.  So
if you want to install a new release of one component, you may have to
upgrade other components as well at the same time.  It can get confusing
and requires a bit more knowledge of the system.  In particular, a lot
of software is available in source code only with a make file that
attempts to make sense of your particular configuration.  In many cases,
you need to tweak the source code a bit to get the software to compile
or run prooperly on your system.  This definitely takes some getting
used to!

Cheers!  Hans

Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com


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