But, if you were to install a vanilla Windows XP (without the hardware vendor's customised release, or their support pack), you would be in a similar position. I don't think comparing hardware driver support (for hardware which has only been supported since after the distro shipped) is necessarily the same as requiring latest and greatest versions of software (when the distros in many cases shipped the "stable" release in the first place).
The problems are exacerbated by the clumsy design of the pam_ldap/nss_ldap mechanisms, which cause system-level functionality to pollute user-program namespaces. If distros would take the proper steps to hide the symbols of their dynamically loaded pam/nss modules from user code, then most of the compatibility issues would disappear.
Should this not rather be fixed once upstream?
Upstream software can be much better supported by the distributions when it's default installation is sane ...
Consider that most distributions now ship with ~ 3000 packages in a somewhat comprehensive distribution (and anything from 10 000 to 30 000 if you include the full repos), and you'll agree that the distribution can't fix *all* bugs in *all* software ... it works much better if it's fixed once upstream.
I have a feeling that not enough people complain to their distro vendors about these problems, and so the distros continue to pretend the problems don't exist.
Or, maybe: 1)people need to file more bugs on nss_ldap 2)bugs filed on nss_ldap etc. should be addressed more aggressively