Mandrake Linux 9.0 Beta 1

leviramsey writes "MandrakeSoft has released the first beta of the next version of its distribution. It features XFree86 4.2, KDE 3.0, GNOME 2.0, and is compiled with gcc-3.1, which (alas) makes it incompatible with a fair amount of commercial software."

Glad to hear

[dciman]

I'm always glad to hear about a new release from Mandrake. Although I personally use Debian, Mandrake has always done an excellent job of promoting useability with their distro. Not to mention what is often the best hardware suport out of the box that I have seen. Granted it isa bit bloated unless you do the expert instal. But I think it is targeted at exactly the right market, and is an easy way for people with out lots of experience to get some of the newest goodies out there.

Re:Compiled with gcc-3.1

[Anonymous Coward]

gentoo has had gcc3.1 support for a while, now almost official with its 1.3 release

Re:java

[spencerogden]

The most important difference is that 3.1 does a much better job at c++, which makes a huge difference in KDE

Re:Question

[FU_Fish]

I can't believe that RedHat is still compiling their new releases for i386 either. They need to step up. It just seems like a waste to continue to release new distributions compiled for 386s.

mirrors

[dotgod]

Australia

ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [planetmirror.com] (Brisbane)
Austria

ftp://ftp.univie.ac.at/systems/linux/Mandrake/8.2/ i586/ [univie.ac.at] (Vienna)

ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [tuwien.ac.at] (Vienna)
Belgium

ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [belnet.be]
Costa Rica

ftp://ftp.ucr.ac.cr/pub/Unix/linux/mandrake/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/ [ucr.ac.cr]
Czech Republic

ftp://ftp.cesnet.cz/OS/Linux/Mandrake/mandrake/8.2 /i586/ [cesnet.cz] (Brno)

ftp://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [fi.muni.cz] (Brno)

ftp://klobouk.fsv.cvut.cz/pub/linux-mandrake/Mandr ake/8.2/i586/ [fsv.cvut.cz] (Prague)

ftp://mandrake.redbox.cz/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [redbox.cz]

ftp://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/OS/Linux/Dist/Mandrake/m andrake/8.2/i586/ [mff.cuni.cz] (Prague)

http://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [fi.muni.cz] (Brno)
Denmark

ftp://ftp.dkuug.dk/pub/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [dkuug.dk] (Koebenhavn)

ftp://ftp.sunsite.dk/mirrors/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [sunsite.dk] (Aalborg)
Estonia

ftp://ftp.aso.ee/pub/os/Linux/distributions/mandra ke/8.2/i586/ [ftp.aso.ee]
Finland

ftp://ftp.song.fi/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.song.fi] (Espoo)
France

ftp://ftp.ciril.fr/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ciril.fr] (Nancy)

ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/unix/linux/distribu tions/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [club-internet.fr] (Paris)

ftp://ftp.info.univ-angers.fr/pub/linux/distributi ons/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [univ-angers.fr] (Angers)

ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/mandrake /8.2/i586/ [lip6.fr] (Paris)

ftp://ftp.proxad.net/pub/Distributions_Linux/Mandr ake/8.2/i586/ [proxad.net] (Paris)

ftp://ftp.u-strasbg.fr/pub/linux/distributions/man drake/8.2/i586/ [u-strasbg.fr] (Strasbourg)

ftp://linux.ups-tlse.fr/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ups-tlse.fr] (Toulouse)
Germany

ftp://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/ [fht-esslingen.de] (Esslingen)

ftp://ftp.de.uu.net/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [uu.net]

ftp://ftp.fh-giessen.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i58 6/ [fh-giessen.de] (Giessen)

ftp://ftp.fh-wolfenbuettel.de/pub/os/linux/mandrak e/dist/8.2/i586/ [fh-wolfenbuettel.de] (Wolfenbuettel)

ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.gwdg.de] (Goettingen)

ftp://ftp.join.uni-muenster.de/pub/linux/distribut ions/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [uni-muenster.de] (Muenster)

ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/unix/linux/Mandrake/ Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [leo.org] (Munchen)

ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i5 86/ [tu-chemnitz.de] (Chemnitz)

ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i 586/ [tu-clausthal.de] (Clausthal)

ftp://ftp.uasw.edu/pub/os/linux/mandrake/dist/8.2/ i586/ [uasw.edu] (Wolfenbuettel)

ftp://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i 586/ [uni-bayreuth.de] (bayreuth)

ftp://ftp.uni-kassel.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i58 6/ [uni-kassel.de] (Kassel)

ftp://ftp.uni-mannheim.de/systems/linux/mandrake/8 .2/i586/ [uni-mannheim.de] (Mannheim)

ftp://ftp.vat.tu-dresden.de/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [tu-dresden.de] (Dresden)

ftp://ramses.wh2.tu-dresden.de/pub/mirrors/mandrak e/8.2/i586/ [tu-dresden.de] (Dresden)

ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/ mandrake/8.2/i586/ [rwth-aachen.de] (Aachen)
Greece

ftp://ftp.duth.gr/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.duth.gr] (Thrace)

ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.ntua.gr] (Athens)
Hong Kong

ftp://ftp.wisr.eie.polyu.edu.hk/linux/mandrake/8.2 /i586/ [polyu.edu.hk]
Hungary

ftp://ftp.linuxforum.hu/mirror/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [linuxforum.hu]
Ireland

ftp://ftp.esat.net/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [esat.net]
Italy

ftp://bo.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [mirror.garr.it] (Bologna)

ftp://ftp.edisontel.it/pub/Mandrake_Mirror/Mandrak e/8.2/i586/ [edisontel.it]
Latvia

ftp://ftp.latnet.lv/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [latnet.lv]
Netherlands

ftp://ftp.nl.uu.net/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [uu.net]

ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/Man drake/8.2/i586/ [nluug.nl]

ftp://ftp.surfnet.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/M andrake/8.2/i586/ [surfnet.nl]

ftp://ftp.wau.nl/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.wau.nl] (Wageningen)
Poland

ftp://ftp.ps.pl/mirrors/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.ps.pl] (Szczecin)

ftp://ftp.task.gda.pl/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [task.gda.pl] (Gdansk)
Portugal

ftp://ftp.dei.uc.pt/pub/linux/Mandrake/Mandrake/8. 2/i586/ [dei.uc.pt] (Coimbra)

ftp://tux.cprm.net/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [cprm.net]
Russia

ftp://ftp.chg.ru/pub/Linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.chg.ru] (Chernogolovka)
Singapore

ftp://ftp.singnet.com.sg/opensource/linux/Mandrake /8.2/i586/ [singnet.com.sg]
Slovakia

ftp://spirit.profinet.sk/mirrors/Mandrake/8.2/i586 / [profinet.sk] (Bratislava)
Spain

ftp://ftp.cesga.es/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [cesga.es] (Galicia)

ftp://ftp.cica.es/pub/Linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.cica.es] (Sevilla)

ftp://ftp.rediris.es/pub/linux/distributions/mandr ake/8.2/i586/ [rediris.es]
Sweden

ftp://ftp.chello.se/pub/Linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [chello.se]

ftp://ftp.chl.chalmers.se/pub/Linux/distributions/ Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [chalmers.se] (Gothenburg)

ftp://ftp.du.se/pub/os/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.du.se] (Dalarma)
Switzerland

ftp://ftp.pcds.ch/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ftp.pcds.ch] (Neuhausen)

ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/mandrake/8.2/ i586/ [cnlab-switch.ch] (Zurich)
Taiwan

ftp://linux.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/pub/Mandrake/mandrak e/8.2/i586/ [nsysu.edu.tw]

ftp://linux.csie.nctu.edu.tw/distributions/mandrak e/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [nctu.edu.tw]

ftp://mdk.linux.org.tw/pub/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [linux.org.tw]
Turkey

ftp://ftp.ankara.edu.tr/pub/linux/dagitimlar/Mandr ake/8.2/i586/ [ankara.edu.tr] (Ankara)
United Kingdom

ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/sunsite.uio.no/pub/un ix/Linux/Mandrake/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [mirror.ac.uk] (Canterbury)
United States

ftp://ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributi ons/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [gatech.edu] (Georgia)

ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/pub/mirrors/mandrake/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/ [ufl.edu] (Florida)

ftp://ftp.cse.buffalo.edu/pub/Linux/Mandrake/mandr ake/8.2/i586/ [buffalo.edu] (NY)

ftp://ftp.nmt.edu/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [nmt.edu] (New Mexico)

ftp://ftp.orst.edu/pub/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [orst.edu] (Oregon)

ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/distributions/mandrake/8.2/i 586/ [tux.org] (Virginia)

ftp://ftp.umr.edu/pub/linux/mandrake/Mandrake/8.2/ i586/ [umr.edu] (Missouri)

ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586 / [indiana.edu] (Indiana)

ftp://linux-cs.tccw.wku.edu/pub/linux/distribution s/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [wku.edu] (WKU-Linux, Western Kentucky University)

ftp://mirror.aca.oakland.edu/linux/mandrake/8.2/i5 86/ [oakland.edu] (Michigan)

ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/Mandrak e/8.2/i586/ [wisc.edu] (Wisconsin)

ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ [anl.gov] (Illinois)

ftp://mirrors.ptd.net/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [ptd.net] (Pensylvania)

ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/mandrake/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/ [secsup.org]

ftp://uml-pub.ists.dartmouth.edu/mirrors/ftp.mandr akesoft.com/pub/Mandrake/mandrake/8.2/i586/ [dartmouth.edu] (New Hampshire)

ftp://videl.ics.hawaii.edu/mirrors/mandrake/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/ [hawaii.edu] (Hawaii)

http://mandrake.dsi.internet2.edu/Mandrake/8.2/i58 6/ [internet2.edu] (For Internet2 academic institutions only)

Re:Question

[Anonymous Coward]

For 99.999% of the code out there, no there isn't.

AFAIK all distributions (including Red Hat, SuSE, Slackware, etc) use something along like -march=i386 -mcpu=i686 which optimizes for that arch without using any instructions that would render the binaries incompatible with lesser-than-i686 CPUs.

If you are interested in purchasing this CD-r set:

[pheph]

A company I do work for is selling (3) CD-r sets of this distribution for $2.49. $0.50 is donated to misc. Open Source and $0.50 is donated directly to Mandrake for their hardwork in creating this distribution.

If you are interested, please see Open Soars Mandrake Linux 9.0 Beta 1 Product Page [opensoars.com].

Re:java

[Garion911]

Yep, I have compiled Java with 3.1 (using the 2.95 comipiled one first of course.)

You will need a patch to compile Java too, read here for directions:

http://hints.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/javafrom sc ratch.txt

Also, you CAN get flash to work, there's a post in gentoo's message boards on how to do this:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=4753

Hope this helps.

Re:java

[Dave Yearke]

For some of the gory details on the GCC 3.1/Java/Mozilla incompatibilities, here's a link:

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=116444 [mozilla.org]

Re:Which apps won't work with gcc-3.1?

[nev]

Check out the Gentoo GCC3 forum [gentoo.org]. They have been playing with GCC 3 for a while now and the forum has good information on getting various programs to work with it. Problems seem to come up in two places:

• The compiler can't compile a program due to the source not being compatible with the new GCC.
• Commercial binaries are not compatible with libraries compiled with the new GCC. This affects things such as Mozilla plugins (Flash, Acrobat).

Right here :)

[timothy]

Actually, we did run a post on the release of Debian 3.0. The URL is here:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/19/2214 21 1&mode=thread&tid=90

Many people apparently didn't see it though, since it's still coming into the submissions bin quite a bit. Proof that it's possible to miss Slashdot stories, if any was needed :) (Says a repentant offender.)

Now -- Gee michael, thanks a lot, now my expected download of Mandrake is going to last well into tomorrow ;)

timothy

Re:Question

[max cohen]

Red Hat offers RPMs in i686/Athlon flavors where the arch difference gives the most benefit, namely glibc and the kernel. In most of the other cases i386 is used to ensure operation on most systems.

Proprietary, not Commercial

[Cyclops]

To the article poster and to all who can't distinguish, here is a rule that you should learn:

Proprietary Software != Commercial Software

It's proprietary software (regardless of being commercial or not -- realplayer is proprietary but free of charge) that will not work. This is due to the usual bad support that proprietary software vendors inflict upon the consumers.

With Free Software (regardless of being commercial or not -- Mandrake cd's can be bought), you can recompile (if someone's not done that for you already) in order to have it work on this new environment, regardless of the wish for profit of the vendor. If you don't have the expertise, you can ask someone else to do it for you (either gratis or for some amount of money).

So remember kids:
There is Proprietary Software which is not commercial
There is Free Software that is commercial
Proprietary has nothing to do with Commercial

Re:Compiled with gcc-3.1

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, no one should be shipping with this compiler. The distributers on the GCC list - FreeBSD, Redhat, Debian and Suse, and I thought Mandrake was in on this - agree that some emergency bugfixes would be made to the C++ ABI, so it will be compatible with the 3.3+ C++ ABI, and this would be release as 3.2 (as there's an ABI change.)

I'm sure Mandrake will follow along with this, simply because it makes it easier to port commercial stuff, etc. But I don't remember seeing any comments from Mandrake at the time of the discussion. Possibly I'm forgetting, though. AFAIK Mandrake doesn't support any GCC developers, so it was possible all that was heard from them about it was a quiet "Us too" back when it was up for debate whether or not to follow this course of action.

I don't think it's a hugely big deal - most of the ABI fixes 3.1->3.2 I've seen mention of are for relatively obscure things like a pointer to member when the class has the an overloaded delete[] operator but uses the default for the non-array delete, etc.

As a response to some other posts in this thread: 3.2 mainline passes the complete Intel ABI checks now. So, given that the ABI standard doesn't change (it would basically require a new version of ISO C++ to change it), 3.2 will be compatible with any future GCC releases, and also compilers from Intel and other vendors.

Re:Question

[skidgetron]

Actually, they aren't releasing a Gentoo 1.3, thats just testing, it will be 1.4 when it's stable. Just like a kernel.

Re:WTF???

[Anonymous Coward]

gcc runs on Windows, too. There are two ports: MinGW and cygwin. It also runs under MSDOS (DJGPP).

Never assume that because something is standard on Linux, that it only runs on Linux. (gcc runs pretty much everywhere...) Has it ever occurred to you that Windows users might want to use some of these tools? After all, Linux relies on them, so they're supposedly good for something. Or what about *gasp* UNIX users who don't run Linux? When gcc was written, there was no "Linux".

Re:Question

[Azar]

>Gentoo is way fast - don't just take my word for it - try it, you will never go back!

That's not necessarily true. I tried it and I went back (though not to Mandrake). Don't get me wrong. Gentoo has a -lot- of cool things about it. But it's not for everyone. Here are the biggest pitfalls, IMHO, about Gentoo that may or may not apply to the original poster.

1) A reasonably new processor is a "requirement."

Since Gentoo compiles everything from source it can take a long time on a slightly older processor. At work, I have a PIII-450 w/192MB of RAM. It took 3 days before I had the base install, XFree86, Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, Evolution, etc... all compiled and setup properly. That's a lot of wasted productivity time. But it is worth the trade off if you're a total speed/performance nut.

2) Broadband/High speed internet access is a must.

If a user does not have Cable/DSL/whatever that can download all the packages he needs in a reasonable time, then Gentoo may not be the right choice.

3) Packages are updated frequently and only the most recent versions of software are available.

This is really a double-edged sword. How quickly Gentoo updates it's available packages is awesome. However, you may not always want the latest and greatest, bleeding edge version of software. There are times when you want to install a version that you know works and may have bugs that you know how to work around.

So Mandrake may be the better choice for his needs.

Re:java

[Bollie]

* Java support is broken. Reason: The currently available Java is not compiled with GCC 3.1 and therefore does not work with our packages.

What is so imperative about going to gcc 3.1 that you have to break java?

Not to harp too much, but I've got a shiny new Gentoo system compiled from scratch with GCC 3.1

1) GCC 3.1 makes bigger code
2) GCC 3.1 makes faster code (most of the times)
3) GCC 3.1 actually tries to conform to a standard other than "just GCC"
4) Binary compatability is ONLY broken for C++ (maybe some other languages, but definitely not C)
5) Java (Sun's JDK) works if you compile it from scratch.
6) Plugins with Mozilla is a bit tricky.
7) In order to maintain Red Hat compatability they HAVE to use GCC 3.1
8) The GCC team will shortly break binary compatability yet again (by renaming the GCC 3.1 branch to GCC 3.2).
9) My is fine. Maybe not stable, but much nicer for a desktop.
10) Once more people jump on the GCC 3-series bandwagon again (They jumped off when Red Hat did the gcc 2.96 doodoo) GCC will have a nice, stable ABI that won't be broken anytime soon.

Damn. Harped too much... oh well...

Re:Advantage of Mandrake over Redhat?

[UVABlows]

I've only seen a couple. Mandrake includes these features that I haven't seen in Redhat (notice I'm not saying "aren't there", just "I haven't seen", so correct me if Redhat contains these):

• Installs updates during installation
• Drakfont - gui for importing fonts from windows
• Devfs, can tell easier if a device is actually there
• Drakgw - gui for configuring a firewall/connection sharing machine, it works very well
• urpmi - like apt-get for rpms, VERY nice (I know a long time redhat user who switched to mdk because of this)
• Minimal install - you can install a very stripped down system (65mb mandrake claims)

  There's no doubt more than this, this is all I could come up with of the top of my head.

Re:java

[QueefChief]

Just because you don't agree with something doesn't make it retarded. Btw, retarded really means "slow", so by this, Mozilla on Linux is retarded (but not really retarded like it used to be).

Re:Compiled with gcc-3.1

[fcrozat]

Mandrake 9.0 will be shipped with gcc 3.2..

We are currently using gcc 3.1.1 branch + backport from 3.2 branch and we will switch to gcc 3.2 as soon as it is released (either this week or next week)..

Re:Question

[CoolVibe]

But then again, you don't _have_ to use Mandrake. That's the cool thing about having lots of specialized distro's to choose from.

Re:Another GCC nightmare ahead

[Clue4All]

Both RedHat and Mandrake are switching to 3.2 with their betas when it's released in a week or two. The C++ ABI change is pretty small and won't affect a lot of programs out there.

You're such a troll.

[bgarcia]

Short answer: the gcc crew is lazy, inconsiderate, or both.

Or, you're lazy, inconsiderate, and trolling.

The C++ ABI keeps changing because they are fixing bugs in the current compiler and C++ Standard Library.

You can look up the reasons for the compiler-side ABI changes here [gnu.org]

The GNU implementation of the Standard C++ Library has been woefully uncompliant until work was begun on the 3.x version of the library (which was first included in the 3.X versions of the compiler and RedHat's 2.96 version of the compiler).

So, the real reason why they keep breaking binary compatibility (and it's usually only C++ compatibility) is that they are NOT lazy, but working VERY HARD to create a standards-compliant compiler and library.

Re:why does GCC 3.1 break stuff?

[uhoreg]

The C++ ABI changed. So only C++ programs will break. C stuff should work fine. It's not really a matter of shipping with two compilers -- C++ programs compiled with one compiler will not be able to use C++ libraries compiled with another.

Re:Linux Useability

[BiteMyShinyMetalAss]

CorelOS/Xandros isn't dead... Lindows uses it as its base, and from some low-key demos up here in Canada, it's looking just fine.

FreeBSD runs linux binaries better than linux kern

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a little know fact that FreeBSD runs linux binaries better than linux kernels do. And, FreeBSD does not break binary compatability between releases like linux kernels do. Isn't it time you looked into the more stable higher performance FreeBSD operating system?

GCC 3.1

[Junta]

I've been running gcc 3.1 compiled gentoo for a while now. Very nice and offers some tangible speedups. However, the costs:

Browser Plugins:
Flash plugin required me to write a small compatibility library to mimick some the old libstdc++ mangled memory allocation schemes. This will probably not appear in a Mandrake desktop, as they will likely provide a -compat library without the user knowing.
Never have gotten java plugins to work... Just haven't figured it out for blackdown, ibm's, nor suns.... Realplayer plugin problem same as Flash. Right now I am just lacking java...

Build:
Some programs won't build out of the box. Some due to bad code, but mostly due to strange build configuration. For example, basiliskII's build fails at one point when gcc is used to link object files generated by g++ and bombs because some g++ symbols are unknown to gcc, switching that gcc to g++ makes that step go by... Others I've had issues with include PixiePlus, mame, and openoffice.

Others may have issues. I don't use crossover as vanilla wine fills all my needs, and I have nothing in the way of commercial software aside from games, which all *worked*, (every quake, civctp). The biggest problem I've had is again, c++ browser plugins...

Re:Compiled with gcc-3.1

[__aahlyu4518]

Actually, from what I understand from the 9.0beta1 discussion [mandrakeforum.com] on Mandrakeforum [mandrakeforum.com], Loki statically compiled in all the stuff needed. Patches/updates might be needed but they are available for the newer distros at Loki's [lokigames.com] site or one of it's mirrors. The loki updater apparently does a good job... Well I have no clue as to what I'm talking about, but that's what I've read over there.

Re:why does GCC 3.1 break stuff?

[elflord]

Hmmm... I don't understand why compiling things with GCC 3.1 breaks commercial programs. Is it due to incorrect versions of the libstdc++.* libs? If that is the case why not ship the distribution with both compilers installed?

Currently I have about half the stuff on my system compiled with gcc 3.1 and have not had a problem.

The submitter doesn't have a very good grasp of the issues. The compatibility issue is that gcc 3.1 uses a different ABI to older gcc versions. That is, C++ functions need to have their names "mangled" to handle C++ features such as function overloading, namespaces, and templates; and the name mangling scheme changes from compiler to compiler (largely because they're still trying to get it right) This means that C++ programs compiled with older compilers will not be able to link against C++ libraries (such as libstdc++) compiled with gcc 3.1. In practice, this is not a problem-- most commerical applications don't dynamically link against any C++ libraries except libstdc++, and Linux distributions typically ship multiple libstdc++ versions. The libstdc++ that ships with gcc 3.1 has the soname (the name that the runtime linker cares about) "libstdc++.so.4" by default, so it will not collide with older versions of the same library (which are named differently)