Re: Build a portable linux binary?

[CROZIER Richard]

>
> (*) THis is a serious problem that you mention: old distros sometimes
> prevent the use of new packages. At the same time, I am perplexed and
> frustrated when people insist  on simultaneously using some obsolete
> base OS and the newest version of enduser software like Octave. Having
> said that, I do realize that many people have the OS imposed on them by
> their inflexible IT organization.
>
>

It's not just inflexible IT infrastructures, I for one know that
upgrading my laptop OS will take at least a day by the time everything
is done. This is one or more days I don't get paid for, or spend with my
family or whatever (I'm only part time at a university in case you
wonder from my email address). Therefore I use the LTS release of Ubuntu
for as long as possible until forced to upgrade because of the out of
date package situation.

As someone else has pointed out though, actually for me the problem is
that even the latest OS, e.g. Ubuntu 18.04 has an out of date Octave
package in the repositories. For me, I routinely build Octave from
source, but if I want people to use stuff which uses the latest(ish)
features, they have to build Octave too. Remember this is *hard* for
ordinary users who don't even know about make for example.

However, I also get the difficulty of achieving a portable binary,
having tried it myself. I just wish it wasn't so. The Flatpak solution
would be great, if it didn't stop Octave packages linking to non Flatpak
libraries.

Regards,

Richard
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with 
registration number SC005336.