Why are RPM's distro specific?

[Dag Wieers]

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005, 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.

Because of the complexity of making distribution agnostic packages. 
However for things like themes or media we often try to make distribution 
agnostic packages, especially when these packages are huge. (mostly games)

Also imo adding a disttag makes it easier for people to know whether a 
package is suitable for them or not. Now that repositories are more common 
this need is less of an argument than it used to be.

One important downside of all this is the increased bandwidth when 
upgrading your distribution.

--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]