Debian Wheezy To Have Multi-Architecture Support 135
dkd903 writes "Debian has announced they are introducing support for multiarch in Debian Wheezy. Multiarch support means a Debian system will be able to install and run applications built for a different target system."
Re:/lib64 is not enough (Score:5, Interesting)
So they are doing it in a stupid way to be different?
No, they're doing it a different way to solve a broader set of problems, as their rationale [debian.org] says. Feel free to debate whether the problems they claim to be solving are worth solving, or whether their solution is the right one for those problems, but don't claim they're just being stupid until you've read the rationale. (I don't have a dog in this fight; the OS I use and develop for/on uses fat binaries for the multi-architecture part of that. I'm just noting that there's a rationale to read before concluding that they're just being different to be different.)
Re:/lib64 is not enough (Score:5, Interesting)
No. Your reaction illustrates that you don't understand what you are talking about.
LSB says that /lib64 is where x86_64 libraries go on x86_32 machines, but says nothing about any other machine architectures and/or combinations. The problem itself is not x86/x86_64-specific, however, so the LSB-specified solution is incomplete.
The LSB is wrong. Debian is solving the problem correctly.
The fact that "something has worked just fine for Red Hat for years now" only reflects the fact that Red Hat doesn't focus anywhere other than x86. For that and several other reasons, Red Hat is a toy operating system as far as I'm concerned.
Re:Great Idea (Score:4, Interesting)
It makes that possible, yes. Combine that with tools from the emdebian project, and you have one wicked embedded Linux development environment AND runtime platform. I for one am following this development closely; I have been using emdebian tools for almost two years now, having them supported in the mainline Debian installations via Multiarch is a huge step forward. Indescribably huge.