Unfortunately, I think it is a problem you have to take up and deal with.
Recompiling sources for entire server setups in a live production
environment because of a short->int conversion is nothing short of a
nightmare for those of us who have to do it. For huge security holes I can
see the necessity, but I think the larger problem of things changing just
for change's sake is still not answered. The examples which Monty and Derek
bring up are good ones which have nothing to do with security holes, AFAIK.
Besides, binaries are still the best way to get up and running as fast as
possible. Waiting to bring up a replacement server because it's still
compiling itself is a good way to get yourself fired. And as Derek points
out, binary-only releases will not just go away anytime soon. Having been
involved in one major use of an open-source OS within a major PC company
(Compaq), I can say from firsthand experience that it was difficult to
deploy systems and keep morale up with kernel interfaces changing on a
moment's notice. Trying to tell non-hacker-type people over the phone how
to recompile userland is not fun either.
I think either (a) slower and better documented releases of the kernel/C
library or (b) a good binary compatibility layer that allows older kernel
modules to still work would help alleviate this. Examples could be either
NetBSD or MacOS/PPC's emulation of 680x0 code (heck, I was sincerely
impressed that I could run old MacOS extensions on the PowerPC). Of course,
this is just my own thought (and especially not MIT's nor Compaq's), and
I'm not going to start another religious OS war here. But I will admit that
I've had much less headaches and had to recompile far less stuff ever since
I switched to NetBSD for my servers a year ago. I still use Linux for my
personal machine since it is cooler in terms of features and supported
devices, but I find myself recompiling/rebooting a lot more often even when
just keeping up with 2.0.xx kernels.
-Edwin
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Edwin Foo | MIT Computer Science - BS '98, MEng. '99
efoo@mit.edu | Compaq Computer Corp. - Cambridge Research Lab
(617) 225-9715 | MIT Residential Computing Consultant (RCC) Developer
| MIT 6.270 - http://web.mit.edu/6.270
"Love must be sincere; Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."
http://hesed.mit.edu/~efoo - Romans 12:9 <><
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