I recently had my first scary WFT moment with Linux when I started a recent security upgrade. It was a large update with a number of security updates and new packages for all the numerous OpenOffice related components.
Update manager would only allow a partial upgrade so I selected that. All security updates installed but only half the OpenOffice packages installed, the rest were held back. This left my system in a state that was just asking for problems and left me a little worried.
I finally traced the conflict to a library which was part of the Cacao Java Runtime. As Java is a must on any system it’s removal didn’t appear to be an option. That was until I found I had 3 different Java Runtime engines installed on my system, those being:
- Open Java
- Sun Java
- Cacao Java
3 really does appear to be a crowd, at least when it comes to Java Runtime Engines.
By all accounts Cacao is a bit of a dog so its fate was decided. As soon as it was removed the update completed and order was resumed. I could sleep easy again.
Open Java is my default Java Runtime on the account it is the only one with a 64bit browser plug-in otherwise I would remove that too and just leave Sun Java.
I guess this sort of conflict appear to be the norm in the Open Source world or at least to be expected. Unlike Microsoft or Apple world there is not a single company at the wheel guiding the direction. The only truly controlled component is the Linux Kernel, the rest is put together by distribution builders and what they include depends on their drives and aims.
