APT package management was: [plug] Dropped Mandrake RPMs for Gentoo (should be Debian) package management

[Michael Hunt]

On Thu, 2005-01-13 at 21:39 +0800, Gavin Chester wrote:

> I am using RH8.0 - a dated version, I know.  However, I have used the
> version of APT adapted for RPM distros for some time and find that it's
> just GREAT.  However, because support for my version has ceased the
> updates have become non-existent.  Time to upgrade, I guess.  

Shame no apt-get dist-upgrade !!!!!

> The big thing about APT (I know, you already know) is that you don't
> worry about dependency madness at all.  The only thing you have to worry
> about using APT is getting a good list of repositories and avoiding
> cross-repository-version madness.  But then that's the same with any APT
> repositories in Debian too, isn't it?

When your distro's default repository comes with over 10,000 packages
there really is not a lot of need to add other repositories.

That being said ....

The real problem comes when your distro's release cycle is longer then
the time taken by the Australian Federal government to call another
election, you start mixing testing with stable, or worse yet run your
production laptop on a mix of unstable and experimental (but even that
is to slow so you compile your DE from source using the developers
customised packaging scripts).[0] Add to this mix the fact that you are
running stuff so old on your server you can't get support for a major
problem [1] in the software and your laptop install is highly customised
because it is running on non-standard hardware.[2] This leads you to
consider and install software from backports or third part repositories
eventually resulting in broken packages and apt hell.

Then one day you hear of a small company, bankrolled by a wealthy South
African producing a distro that has a 6 month release cycle, a version
targeted for your laptop's hardware and employs your DE's lead
developer!!![3] [4] This could almost be distro Utopia !!![5]

For what it is worth, God [6] bless Canonical.[7]

OK I'm ready for all the 'compile from source' distro enthusiasts to
come out of the woodwork now. 

Michael Hunt
An Aussie heading back to Africa (hopefully soon).

[0] Read all about GARNOME at http://cipherfunk.org/garnome/
[1] 'You are running what version ???' Pause as speaker ROFL.
[2] Some call an ibook running Linux non-standard. See archives for all
the gory details.
[3] Jeff Waugh, alias jdub. See http://www.gnome.org/~jdub/blog/
[4] See http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=8286
[5] While not perfect there are only a few letters different between
Ubuntu and Utopia.
[6] No meant to offencive, but in line with this poster's beliefs. 
[7] The distro is Ubuntu if you hadn't figured it out by now. Canonical
is the company behind Ubuntu.