The library and dll files are still are a problem.

However, I just purchased VariCad a 3D modeling packange and it install
on a number of differenet systems without a hitch.  They just
incorpoarted libs into the package.

A complete contrast was the software development package from TI.  It
complained about lib differences and finally was installable using SL
7.6.  Using KDE desk top there is an error in KDE that when you clicked
on a information box to change a directory it just died.  You could
restart the app and it got to the same place and died - no error
message, it just packed up and died.
You had to go back to the video drivers and change a config file and
then it worked.  I would hate to say how many $$ we have in this.  If it
were not for a couple of good guys at TI who took and interest in prolem
we would never have gotten it to work.

Eagle for Linux has the same lib problems.
We did not purchase Eagle because the current owners are more concerned
with Icon develpment than install, performance and functionality.
Literally no significant progress in almost 15 years.

The list goes on - When will developers learn, this crap has been going
on for 30 years and we are not getting smarter.

VariCAD was a breath of fresh air.  Get a 30 trial and buy it as it
reads and writes ACAD, SolidWorks, Igis, and more.
For $600 it was a bargin.

This is not a VariCAD add but an example how smart developers do things.
A contrast.

Larry Linder

On Mon, 2019-01-07 at 12:16 +0000, MAH Maccallum wrote:
> This certainly an interesting issue, but I have
> been less pleased with SL than Keith is. The main
> problems have come with software that is not in
> SL's standard set, generally because SL does not
> have the needed libraries or supporting packages.
> 
> For example I cannot currently use Dropbox under SL
> although I have manually re-partitioned and re-formatted
> to use ext4 rather than xfs, since Dropbox insists on ext4.
> The error message tells me I do not have glibc 2.19, and
> advises I should update to Ubuntu 14.04+ or Fedora 21+
> 
> Often there's a workaround using other repos' contents
> to get necessary libraries etc., but when I look for info
> on the net the available advice is, like that above, most
> often for Ubuntu and secondly a recent Fedora.
> 
> An example of software I would like to use is an up-to-date
> gramps, while examples of things I do use but which are not
> in the standard SL distribution are Texlive 2018
> (SL's distributed texlive seems quite old) and MATE (from
> epel, which works but with some flaky bits, notably the
> power-manager and the keyboard configuration)
> 
> Malcolm
> 
> On 05/01/2019 23:43, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> > I do not expect an RHEL/CentOS cancellation in my
> > lifetime.  I expect IBM will keep them thriving
> > and available for a very long time.
> > 
> > However, big companies can do stupid things, and
> > cancelling RHEL, or ending "free" CentOS, is
> > something a clueless IBM CEO might attempt someday.
> > 
> > I am designing systems that others will maintain and
> > upgrade for decades.  A reluctant switchover to, say,
> > Debian is easier to manage now than later.  I hope
> > that will NEVER be necessary.  Debian could be
> > mismanaged as well; this happened with X and Gnome.
> > 
> > I rely on Scientific Linux and variants because large
> > organizations like Fermilabs and CERN and LIGO do.
> > I hope these organizations have contingency plans.
> > 
> > I assume that if IBM behaves badly in the future, our
> > international community will grumble, plead, and then
> > fork, keeping systems like RPM and yum functional for
> > approximately forever.
> > 
> > Is this a prudent assumption?
> > 
> > Keith
> >