Why are RPM's distro specific?

[Jorge Fábregas]

On Wednesday 19 January 2005 9:42 pm, Arthur Pemberton wrote:
> Out of curiousity, I'd like to know why RPM's are, or at least some are,
> distro specific? That would be with the obvious exception of distro
> specific apps.

First,  let it be known that they're not just distro specific. They are distro 
AND version-of-distro specific. :)

I think the two major problems are  libraries and file paths. A RPM will 
expect "certain version" of a library (shared library) or program and it will 
also expect it on a "certain location".

It really isn't just a matter of libraries...we're talking here mainly about 
development frameworks (gtk, qt, xorg). All distros come with different 
versions and everything sitting on top of that needs to work out nice.

I hope it will get better in the future. Search google for "linux fhs" and 
"linux lsb".

HTH,
Jorge