Networker

[Networker] NW7 for Linux Intel restriction

2003-06-05 04:36:16
Subject: [Networker] NW7 for Linux Intel restriction
From: Davina Treiber <treiber AT HOTPOP DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 04:36:22 -0400
I tried to install NW7 on a fairly old Linux Pentium test machine recently.
To my disappointment if refused to install, saying "this package is built
for a different architecture".

For those of you who don't do a lot of Linux I'll explain. RPM packages for
Intel are always built for a i386 architecture, and the i386 is included in
the file name. Occasionally there will be a package that has specific
architectural needs, such as the kernel, and then there will be several
versions released, .i386.rpm, .i486.rpm, .i586.rpm, and .i686.rpm. There is
always a .i386.rpm package release since this is the common denominator.

By releasing only a .i686.rpm package, Legato have broken with convention,
and ruled out the possibility of backing up all those old legacy machines
that use Pentium/486/386 processors - quite common in the Linux world since
Linux is less demanding of resources than Windows. They have restricted NW7
to PII and above. This is very bad form.

I can't believe that they would have deliberately done this as a strategy,
it seems more likely that someone building the packages has overlooked this.

What does the list think about this?

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