The question of course is whether programs will just continue to work with 1.0.1* as with 0.9.8.

I guess a first start would be 0.9.8y, which maybe should have these patches from the older version and obey the configuration in the rules file. too.

For a start, I didn't apply any patch at all, only configured it with " ./config shared --prefix=/usr --openssldir=/usr/lib/ssl no-idea no-mdc2 no-rc5 zlib". Result: it crashes. Would have been too easy I guess.