winscape 2296
No, a huge step forward - because ancient Unix didn't know about package management. Of course, back then you had probably a few thousand files on the typical system whereas today it are a few thousand packages with any package containing between a few and a few thousand files.
Wrong. You are still free to install anything you want (as long as it doesn't require any kind of privileged access to hardware), but you install it in your home directory (or wherever you have write permission) and only you (or whoever you grant access) can use it.
Fascinating. Thanks. The standard joke(s) about TSO make more sense now. When I was using it (mostly for preparing and submitting batch jobs and checking their output), it seemed to me to...
The "simply get a tar file from somewhere, untar it ..." idea still works, but has a serious drawback: no package management0. The whole reason compiled binary packaged for Linux are distributed not as tar files but as package files (.deb, .rpm, whatever) is that they are designed to work with the package manager.
recent thread on the subject in comp.arch. when we were having arguments about 3274 not providing...
Besides: one of the ideas of Unix is that only the superuser can install and remove system wide software installations and therefore only the superuser can bugger up the system for everyone.
Regards, Alex.
0 Yes, I know, there are tools to also get package management this way. But they do require diligence and thinking before acting, both of which are in very short supply today. -- "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison
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