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If an application in the repos depends on it, then that version of Qt or GTK will also be available in the repos. What's more likely to happen is: - either tha

If an application in the repos depends on it, then that version of Qt or GTK will also be available in the repos. What's more likely to happen is: - either that application is either dropped from the repos for being unmaintained (if it's using a library that old then there's likely other issues with it) - or some other helpful sole would fork the project and update it to run on a newer version framework This is also very distribution specific. For example ArchLinux still supports Qt 3 applications and libraries in the community repos however I wouldn't expect the same from CentOS (though admittedly I've also not checked).

yyyk 6y ago
Well, our scenario is that the app is not updated, so that's kinda assumed. What usually happens is that distros drop apps due to old library version, and if the user needs it, than the user has to build all the deps, and most users can't do it. I didn't know Arch had older versions - most distros are very eager to drop, since supporting (or even compiling) these huge frameworks past EOL becomes harder and harder.
- laumars 6y ago
  That’s the problem though, your scenario is making a boat load of assumptions to stand up a theoretical point. Assumptions that the user is running a specific distro, that they then want a specific application and that application has been unmaintained for more than 10 years. This isn’t a common scenario regular Linux folk are going to find themselves in. Plus the situation wouldn’t be any better on Windows (good luck finding the installer for software that has been abandoned 10 years ago from safe places online) nor macOS (Apple do breaking changes more frequently more than any other platform) either. And that’s without factoring in any security concerns that running software as old as that might introduce. So regardless of the platform, if it’s consumer software (ie not industrial applications or other such specialist edge case), you’d recommend the user switches to a newer and maintained alternative.
  - yyyk 6y ago
    "your scenario is making a boat load of assumptions to stand up a theoretical point" Well, that's the scenario the original post made, not mine. From my experience, this can happen albeit rarely - especially with closed source software. "specific distro" == The most popular Linux distros don't include old frameworks. "they then want a specific application and that application has been unmaintained for more than 10 years" This (for example) eventually describes pretty much 99% of games released natively for Linux, unless one goes with Steam which tries to keep stuff working (I dunno whether GoG or itch also do it). For really old software, Windows is the best bet. Even if Windows itself doesn't work (it usually does), wine might.

yyyk 6y ago

Well, our scenario is that the app is not updated, so that's kinda assumed. What usually happens is that distros drop apps due to old library version, and if the user needs it, than the user has to build all the deps, and most users can't do it. I didn't know Arch had older versions - most distros are very eager to drop, since supporting (or even compiling) these huge frameworks past EOL becomes harder and harder.

laumars 6y ago
That’s the problem though, your scenario is making a boat load of assumptions to stand up a theoretical point. Assumptions that the user is running a specific distro, that they then want a specific application and that application has been unmaintained for more than 10 years. This isn’t a common scenario regular Linux folk are going to find themselves in. Plus the situation wouldn’t be any better on Windows (good luck finding the installer for software that has been abandoned 10 years ago from safe places online) nor macOS (Apple do breaking changes more frequently more than any other platform) either. And that’s without factoring in any security concerns that running software as old as that might introduce. So regardless of the platform, if it’s consumer software (ie not industrial applications or other such specialist edge case), you’d recommend the user switches to a newer and maintained alternative.
- yyyk 6y ago
  "your scenario is making a boat load of assumptions to stand up a theoretical point" Well, that's the scenario the original post made, not mine. From my experience, this can happen albeit rarely - especially with closed source software. "specific distro" == The most popular Linux distros don't include old frameworks. "they then want a specific application and that application has been unmaintained for more than 10 years" This (for example) eventually describes pretty much 99% of games released natively for Linux, unless one goes with Steam which tries to keep stuff working (I dunno whether GoG or itch also do it). For really old software, Windows is the best bet. Even if Windows itself doesn't work (it usually does), wine might.