Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!crltrx!max!jg
From: jg@max.crl.dec.com (Jim Gettys)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Why not distribute binaries?
Keywords: X11 binaries
Message-ID: <4610@crltrx.crl.dec.com>
Date: 21 Feb 90 17:02:08 GMT
References: <1990Feb21.150131.10382@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@crltrx.crl.dec.com
Reply-To: jg@max.crl.dec.com (Jim Gettys)
Distribution: comp
Organization: DEC Cambridge Research Lab
Lines: 22

For what machines?  For what versions of what operating systems?

Back in early X10 days we did for a while.  Probability of them working
was not good, and caused more trouble than it was worth.  X now runs on
more different machines, and more different releases of operating
systems, than you can possibly imagine.  Think of the cross product of
machine types, operating systems, and releases of base system software,
not to even mention different display types.

This is what commercial vendors do for you; produce binaries and fix
problems.  It is much more work than you can imagine doing the testing
and distribution.  They earn their money, from my experience.

For a small group of people doing interesting work that runs on many
different systems, shipping source is the only way to go.

You want just binaries; go to your computer vendor.  That's what they
are in buisness for.

Or you can go into buisness yourself, selling binary distributions...

					- Jim Gettys