2.2. What?
If you do not know what glibc is by now, don't worry! When I
first had problems with a new program I wanted to compile, I only
knew that my version of glibc was not sufficient for the
compile. Now that I know more, I will try to explain in a very simple way what
glibc does.
The glibc package contains a library written in the
programming language of C. Libraries are a very useful thing in programming;
instead of inventing the wheel from scratch for operations such as
computing the square-root of a number, such common functions
are stored in separate files—the so-called libraries.
When a new version of a library is published it often contains
some new functions, uses more efficient algorithms for already
implemented functions, and so on.
This is the reason why some programs complain about an older
version of glibc: the current version just does not contain all the functions
the program needs in order to run.
I know this is not technically correct in all detail, but it
gives you a basic understanding of the architecture behind.