[Gretl-users] Linux versions of gretl

[Gordon Hughes]

My point was not really specific to the difference between versions 
1.6.2 and 1.6.5, since I have used gretl on Windows for some time and 
can continue to do so.  Further, I don't doubt that it is possible to 
rely upon some versions of Linux which are directly compatible with 
the versions relied upon by gretl's developers or packagers.  But, 
Linux is a broad church with an increasing of users who look for a 
standard desktop distribution - most of which are conservative in 
updating core libraries.

However, I have found that trying to update various libraries to 
resolve gretl dependencies has caused me serious problems in several 
versions of Linux including Debian, Suse & RH derivatives.  What I 
have learned is that you go beyond the versions that are provided by 
the relevant repositories at your peril and in many cases 
distributions rely upon releases of key libraries that are several 
generations out of date.  Secondly, there can be important but 
unexpected problems even when the dependencies appear to have been 
resolved.  For example, I have just discovered that I can't run 
version 1.6.2 properly because my installed version of LAPACK has 
unresolved symbols to the GNU Fortran library.  This is irritating 
but not disastrous for me because I used to design and write 
econometric software many years ago, so that I can track down the 
missing libraries though I would prefer not to have to spend the time 
on it.  Also I have a Windows virtual machine on my Linux system on 
which I can easily run gretl, though that rather defeats the point of 
the exercise.

The key issue is that this kind of difficulty is likely to put off 
95% of potential or actual users of gretl on Linux.  Administrators 
of centrally managed computing facilities hate to deal with such 
matters.  That is the reason for considering a statically linked 
version for Linux - to widen the potential group of users beyond the 
relatively small group of highly motivated cognoscenti.

Gordon Hughes