Can binaries run across distributions? e.g. Red Hat 7.2 and Ubuntu 10.04?
 

I have no real LINUX system experience and therefore the company has tasked me to get a VMware Appliance running in which they can build their product.

The product runs on Red Hat 7.2. I have attempted many times to get Red Hat 7.2 installed on VMware player. It always fails when I get to Xwindows. I need Xwindows as the company is going to use NetBeans 6.9 for development.

I downloaded an Ubuntu 10.04 Appliance, which runs fine.

The idea is to build the product on the Ubuntu and run it on the Red Hat target.

All systems are x86 platforms.

Before going any further I want to know if what I am attempting to do is even possible. If not, any suggestions on what to do?

I doubt it will work.

Even if you built the application on Ubuntu 10, the chances are it will definitely not work on Red Hat 7.2

You have to take into account that Red Hat 7.2 is almost 10 years old versus Ubuntu 10.04 which is 3 months old. Thus your compiler/libraries are vastly different on the two distro's.

Also is the product built to only work on Red Hat 7.2? My advice is that you build and run it on Ubuntu 10.04 or alternatively CentOS 5 (which is the latest Red Hat clone).

Hi alli_yas,

Thank you for your response.

I sort of guessed that it would not work, but had to ask.

As far as running it on another Linux platform, that can not happen. They have a vast distribution of machines and they can not possibly change the OS.

I guess I will need to look/beg for a Red Hat 7.2 Appliance with working X windows.