Binary incompatibility of Linux distributions

[Steven Susbauer]

On Sat, 16 May 2009 09:24:17 -0500, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2009/5/15 anthony baldwin <photodharma at gmail.com>:
>
>> One thing I can't figure out is why the home page for each app isn't
>> always listed in the synaptic descriptions, so one could just click on
>> it and see the apps home page to learn more about the app.
>> That would, IMHO, be a really good idea.
>>
>> For some apps a home page is listed, but not a link, and for the vast
>> majority of apps, no home page is listed.
>> I find myself googling stuff...
>>
>> /tony
>> --
>>
>> http://www.photodharma.com
>> art & photos | tony baldwin
>>
>> http://www.uuchaliceart.com
>> Unitarian Universalist art.
>
> Lots of apps don't /have/ a homepage. A basic Linux distro consists of
> tens of thousands of binaries. Not every one has its own distinct web
> presence. Is there much point in a homepage for the ls command? It's a
> program in its own right.
>
> Secondly, home pages can change and come and go. Software authors
> might not want them linked to their home internet account, for various
> reasons, not least of which is spam-prevention. If they don't have or
> don't want to use free web space, they might not be in a position to
> pay for a site to be hosted elsewhere.
>


Obviously if others are able to download their software, they are having  
it hosted. Most places such as sourceforge offer at least a basic page for  
the software. The fact that Googling reveals a homepage also shows they  
are hosting one. There is probably another reason the homepage field is  
not being included.

You do not install ls through the ls package, it is part of coreutils,  
which does have a homepage (http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/). The  
Ubuntu version is much customized and doesn't include the homepage link,  
which makes sense as you wouldn't want somebody downloading the GNU one  
and thinking it's a snap-in replacement.