Shared libraries

Shared libraries

> Chances are, if you're developing software for Linux you probably want to target more than one Linux distribution, anyway.

Why is that a problem? Go back quarter century… Windows 9x and Windows NT were significantly more different than different Linux distros… yet creating one binary that worked on both was the norm. Supporting Windows 3.x (with Win32s) was harder, but still possible.

These days that support is often done with help of Docker and, now, Flatpacks. Not sure how well it works with Flatpacks, but Docker for server packages works reasonably well.

Yes, that's why people invented something that works for both. Many things, in fact. If GNU/Linux couldn't give them usable SDK then they would pick someone who would… Valve, e.g.

But then distros spent decades punishing them for that.

The only thing that achieved is the development of open source ecosystems that consider distros their enemy, or, at best, “the necessary evil”.

Rust just have turned into reveal show because distros have come to the Rust developers with demands then need to fulfill… and got back the question they haven't expected at all: “why should we care?”.

They have gotten certain answers, ultimately, via the Rust-in-Linux route: certain developers want to use distro-provided version of Rust and that means certain features needs to be included in Rust at certain time… that got acknowledgement, even if not full acceptance. Everything else? Distros have created the problem for themselves by introducing some strange arbitrary rules, distros may decide how to resolve them… developers of most Rust packages are just too busy doing useful work with people who don't invent random crazy hoops, they don't have time for the distro-invented circus.