Has Linux gone binary?

[Jonathan Hutchins]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Bates [mailto:andrewb at litecode.net]

> people are asking about where to get an rpm.. rather than a 
> source.. 

Although make scripts do some pretty amazing things, automatically
customizing the compile for distribution variations like library versions
and file locations, there's one thing you can't do:  Uninstall.  You have to
hack back through the make script manually, discover every little change it
made, and undo it by hand.  Miss something?  You could be facing a crashed
system.

With binaries, though: rpm -e package.  All gone.

Distributions like RedHat and Mandrake are also doing a lot to bring new
people into Linux, people who may eventually learn enough to be comfortable
with compile/installs, but need a little hand holding to get started.

For the intellectual purists there is always gentoo, and the software coded
by people who believe the source files are all the documentation anyone
should ever need.