At 06:08 PM 13/07/2003 -0400, you wrote:

>I am about to jump from Windows to Linux with a test server installation. I
>have total freedom to pick a Linux distro to start with but I need help
>deciding which to choose.
>
>Unfortunately the two apps I definitely want to run on this machine are
>Firebird and Kylix. I understand they have conflicting requirements in the
>sets of distros they work on but I need to solve this problem at some
>point. (If I have to I'll start with Firebird and then make changes to get
>Kylix working.)
>
>Any guidance on what is a good Linux version to use with either Firebird or
>Kylix would be appreciated.

Even more, I need to get a categorical Yea/Nay list quite urgently, with
respect to the latest 1.5 release candidate.

The following I have tried:

Kylix 2 (certified for RedHat 7.2) works with RedHat 7.3 but won't install
on Mandrake 8 or 9 or RedHat 8.

Kylix 3 won't install on Mandrake 9 or RedHat 8.

No version of FB 1.5 will install on RedHat 7.3 or 8. Classic will install
on Mandrake 9 but not Mdk 8. SS (RC3) will not install on Mdk 8 or 9.

I've had no success clean-installing SuSE 8 Pro on either of my Linux
machines. As SuSE is the ultimate non-free, non-cheap Linux, I won't be
able to see where I'd go with SuSE 9 (unless someone wants to give me a
late birthday present). Nickolay said he has Kylix 3 AND RC3 superserver
running on a SuSE 9.1 box. (There is no RC4 Superserver yet.)

The FB/Linux version incompatibilities are due to the high versions of
GLIBC which have been used to compile the more recent Fb 1.5 binaries (or,
rather, to build the libc++ runtime that Firebird links to). I think it's
a showstopper but none of the Firebird devs thinks so, so who am I to
argue? The problem from their POV is that the Linux C++ compiler support
prior to GLIBC_2_3 is unstable.

The Kylix incompatibilities seem to involve a variety of X-related
packages. We can probably only depend on the Linux versions that Borland
certified, per Kylix version. This isn't going to change soon, since I've
read that Kylix development is completely shelved at present while the
developers play with their .NETballs.

For my own purposes I can get by with RedHat 7.3 on the notebook for Kylix,
connecting to 1.5 Classic running on the Mandrake box; but urgently need
to get a fairly reliable matrix of options for the 1.5 release notes and
the book.

I'll report back if I get any improvement on my current situation with some
more tweaking of libraries. The problem for me is that it's taking so much
time - one dependency leads to another and I'm dependent on a 21 Kbps
dialup connection for downloads. It's not realistic for me to keep doing
this: I need a CD distro that "just works".

heLen