Which operating system do you use most?

MikeRS said:
it will never work if the program doesn't support "make install" at all (eg, ZDoom).

You can specify the installation command after the checkinstall options. If several commands are needed I usually write a shell script that executes them and do something like

# checkinstall -S sh ./install.sh

Graf Zahl said:

I'm just wondering: On Windows most applications circumvent these dependency issues by having all required dependencies part of the installation itself, especially for things that don't need to be installed in the system (like most DLLs) Can't this be done under Linux as well in cases where dependency issues can't be afforded? Yes, it would certainly increase file size and probably memory usage but sometimes that seems to be the lesser evil compared to having software that may not install properly.

If I understand you correctly, are you talking about program X being installed into (for example) c:\Program Files\programx and then having additional support DLLs (say, zlib.dll) in that directory?

I'm not sure how many other projects do this, but I know that the standard that the Mono team recommends for any project that uses Mono is to install these under /usr/lib/programx. When it comes to Mono, because of the GAC, this becomes necessary since not all DLLs get installed into it. The ones that aren't put in the GAC should be placed with the EXE file, with a script places in /usr/bin to call it.

For example, program X has three files: programx.exe, programx.dll, zlib.dll. The two DLL files are not installed into the GAC. During the "make install" (which, btw, is what tools such as checkinstall will use to create packages from source tarballs), a script simply called "programx" is created. The EXE and DLLs are put into /usr/lib/programx, while the script is put into /usr/bin. The program can then be run like any other Linux program by calling "programx".

Non-mono programs could do the same, except with the EXE being like "programx-run" and having statically linked library files in that /usr/lib/programx directory. If I'm not mistaken, Firefox does this.

On a related note, most modern Makefiles generated with Autotools seem to have an uninstall target. I know the ones I've made have this, and if you use the examples on Mono's site, you end up with this target as well. So even if you compile from source, you can do "make uninstall" and everything's cleaned. Not all projects do this (grr), but it's nice when they do.

Which operating system? But the DOOM operating system ofc, FTW!

I think we all forgot booters...there it's just you, the machine, and the game. Pure. Raw. Uninhibited. No need for stinking OSes.

In a sense, the original DOS Doom used an "operating system" of its own, with its own memory managers and virtual memory, drivers etc. even though it wasn't a pure booter. It even called itself that way in early releases..."Doom operating system v1.1" ah the memories...

Mine is Debian testing (Lenny actually).

I'm trying something new.

exp(x) said:

I'm trying something new.

is this like switching from a Chevrolet to a GMC or is it more complex than that?