I really wish I could use SmartOS, but I couldn't even install some common Python packages without getting a compilation error. Looking such problems up on issue trackers revealed old requests for compatibility with SmartOS, and no follow-up from the developers.
I'm not sure what the recourse is, I just don't know enough about C to fix this myself. I assumed this would be a common enough problem that the solution would be well documented somewhere but there seems to be nothing out there even mentioning the issue.
I'm happy to do all my work in LX-branded zones, and that's certainly better than the alternatives (for my purposes), but having two operating systems still kinda irks me.
On software compatibility unfortunately the actual state (nearly anyone only on GNU/Linux) lead to forget that other OSes exists and many non-POSIX/non-portable features are more and more used anywhere...
That's not an IllumOS/SmartOS or any other unices faults nor something they can really solve...
I recommend using the package manager than building yourself. If something needs to be modified about the source, it will first be patched in the widely used package manager. convincing upstream to take in a patch & then waiting for a new version to be released with that patch takes time.
Ah, I see, thanks. Still, that's a non-starter. Many of the packages I use are not available through any system package manager, and it would preclude using virtualenvs.
OTOH, I desperately want to move away from Python.
I'm not sure what the recourse is, I just don't know enough about C to fix this myself. I assumed this would be a common enough problem that the solution would be well documented somewhere but there seems to be nothing out there even mentioning the issue.
I'm happy to do all my work in LX-branded zones, and that's certainly better than the alternatives (for my purposes), but having two operating systems still kinda irks me.