On Thu, 09 Dec 1999 22:28:52 -0500 
 Michael Richardson <mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca> wrote:

 >   Is there any reason to have library version numbers the same across
 > platforms? 

Yes, consistency, easier release engineering, etc.

 >   It sure would have made life easier to live without COMPAT_AOUT if we
 > had bumped the major versions on ELF stuff!!!

Um...  Linux did the "major major bump" on their ELF transition, and as
I recall, it caused no end of problems for some people.

        -- Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>