“Do I have to compile a program every time I want to install it
on my Linux machine? Is this really necessary? RPM and dpkg are
great for those platforms, but it’s starting to get a little crazy.
This is the year 2000. I shouldn’t have to compile anything. I
want to hit a button and watch it go, but no. I’ve got to
./configure. I’ve got to make all. I’ve got to make install. Is
there any end?“
“Who thought this was a good idea? Way back in the 90’s, I had a
Macintosh LC. I felt a little out of place on it because I was used
to the rough-and-tumble world of the x86 universe. You know what
was nice? If I downloaded a program, the OS would put a little icon
on my desktop. If I double-clicked that icon, the package would
explode, and I’d get another little icon. I would click this one,
the program would install itself, find where it needed to be, and
boom, I was good. I was ready to use that program.”
“Oh, no. We can’t do that, not in the new and exciting era of
Linux. We’ve got to worry about compiling programs in Linux! We’ve
got to download this file, gunzip it, tar -xvf it into directory,
go in there, type a bunch of archaic commands, and roll the dice.
If I’m lucky, the thing’ll just run and I can move on with my life.
If I’m not, I get some godawful error message about some weird
dependency that this program has. What do I have to do, send it to
Betty Ford? Do I need to send my application to rehab because of
its dependency problem? No, I’ve got to go online, find the package
that the bit that my program needs is in, and get this – Start all
over again. I’ve got to go get something to make something work,
and there’s a chance that the something I need to work to make
something work won’t work. Follow me?”