Ahh, forget repo fusion :-).

[Robin Laing]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> Tom Horsley wrote:
>>
>>> Why not just give up on any Linux install being compatible with any 
>>> other and compile everything statically instead 
>>
>> We tried that, and redhat has managed to produce a libc in which
>> it is actually impossible to statically link a working
>> program. All sorts of routines (pam related things like getpwuid
>> for one example) drag in libraries dynamically, and when they do
>> that in a static program, you then find you've managed to load
>> two conflicting copies of malloc (or something equally destructive).
>>
>> Anyway, If I wanted to recompile everything to get it working,
>> I'd just switch to gentoo, I was merely brainstorming the idea
>> of a linux where you could run any program from any distro :-).
> 
> I didn't mean _you_ would recompile everything.  I was suggesting that 
> everything which is not compiled against the stock libs (as in the stuff 
> from alternate repos) would all be statically compiled so as to not 
> break when the stock versions do their frequent incompatible updates - 
> and a side effect would be to not introduce alternate/incompatible 
> libraries.  When a library changed in such a repo, I'd expect the repo 
> versions to be recompiled.  The only effect on the user side would be 
> larger updates in the cases where multiple applications use same libs.
> 

The issue is related to how up to date the various repos are working.  I 
have ran into this over the years.  Repo X works with version 2.0.1 
while Repo Y is now using 2.0.2.  Now you come into problems.


Isn't this the idea behind rpmforge?

http://rpmforge.net/manifest.php

1. Goal
The RPMforge.net project is an independent community-driven project to 
provide the infrastructure and tools to allow users, developers and 
packagers to meet and work together to provide and improve RPM packages.



I would also like to see the Linux Standards Base model followed.

http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/LSB

Part of the issue is where software will be installed and how it is 
handled within the OS.

Common configuration file locations and setup.

-- 
Robin Laing