Well, yeah. It's not like Sun ever released a completely incompatible OS "upgrade" based on an entirely different codebase and standard set, right? :)
My point wasn't to defend linux, it was that this whole genre of platform flame is boring and useless. This stuff happens. It even happens for some really good reasons, like "improvements" and "features". It's been happening since the dawn of computing (at least), and it's even been happening in precicely this form since the Unix wars began in the mid 80's.
Just deal with it. Or don't. But stop complaining, because you won't fix anything.
At least in Solaris the kernel interfaces doesn't change from minor to minor release rendering existent binary drivers useless ;)
But that aside: At the end the text is not about Linux, about Solaris or AIX, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD. It's about portability. Either we have to accept that there is a lock-in to Linux for many opensource development and stop all this portability stuff.
The article is about saying: Hey, use gmake if you want ... but keep into consideration, that the target system may be something else than Debian Lenny.
The next thing: I would like to see a standard way to install software on Linux. 17 distinct packages for Linux, just one of Mac OS X and 2 for (Open)Solaris. A standard would be nice here ... really.
And you have to take the following into consideration: Outside of the enthusiasts group something like binary compatibility guarantees something important for the admins. Improvements are good, features are good. But not at the price of breaking every bridge behind. At the end this hurts the Unix franchise, as the Microsoft franchise is simply a much larger market. We can't afford to fragmentize the Unix business by being to GNU/Linux centric. Deal with it. Solaris won't disappear, the *BSD won't disappear. But we should be able to ensure, that all can participate from open source development. And one factor is further development of the Unix standards to keep them current with the technological development, and not just cooking it's own soup.
My point wasn't to defend linux, it was that this whole genre of platform flame is boring and useless. This stuff happens. It even happens for some really good reasons, like "improvements" and "features". It's been happening since the dawn of computing (at least), and it's even been happening in precicely this form since the Unix wars began in the mid 80's.
Just deal with it. Or don't. But stop complaining, because you won't fix anything.