I found this article on GCC. It says that some Linux distributions are shipped with the GCC compiler version 2.96, a non-formal GCC release.



What does this mean? It seems to me we're looking at de different Linux vendors making their package a non-standard one. At this point it means a program compiled with GCC on a Red Hat pc can't be run on a distribution from Slackware. You will have to build the program again, this with your Slackware GCC compiler. Or am I wrong? It seems logical, though, that a specially built compiler makes use of some non-standard components in Linux. Or why would they make their own compiler?



It would be too bad if the Linux vendors are moving in different directions, instead of moving towards the same goal, taking market shares from MS. And if the distributions become totally incompatible with eachother, it will be difficult for users to change distribution. This do not make things easier for the users, mainstream or professional.