Wrt the announcement of ld.so 1.9.2, which drops a.out support...
I think it is of critical importance to continue a.out shared
library support in SOME way.
There are programs that people want, and need, to use. At our
department, for example, we use Maple VR3 on our Linux machines.
If a.out support is discontinued in the next upgrade, we'll be
forced to drop Linux for something that CAN run Maple, wether it'll
be a BSD variant (I think FreeBSD runs Linux a.out), or Windows 95 or
WNT.
Dropping a.out support would also go a long way towards establishing
that Linux is NOT a serious operating system. It would also penalize
those companies who first showed trust in Linux by making their
commercial software available at a time when a.out was the only
recognized format.
IMHO, this would be the biggest backward step from establishing
Linux for the general public. DON'T DO IT!
-- Thomas Koenig, Thomas.Koenig@ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de, ig25@dkauni2.bitnet. The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double logarithmic diagram.