Why I use Debian. Was Re: [plug] Mandrake - printing

[Matt Kemner]

On Mon, 21 Feb 2000, Barbara Robson wrote:

> I chose Redhat at work because it is better supported here, because rpm
> packages are more widely available than deb packages

Although it has been pointed out why installing third-party RPMs etc is a 
bad idea, I should point out for those that do not know of it, that there
is a program available called "alien" which will convert rpm (and other)
packages to deb packages, and vice versa.

I have used this on a small number of occasions, where I desperately
wanted to install something, and the only option was rpm.
(eg the Glide drivers, which until recently were available only as rpm,
not even as tgz)

The way I ensure I still know what is being installed, is by checking the
alien-generated .deb with dpkg --contents to see what files are being
placed where. If you are not happy with it you have the option of
unpacking and repacking it to suit (but it requires some knowledge of how
a Debian package is put together)

 - Matt