Randall L. Rathbun wrote:
Robert raises an interesting question, do we simply rely on the "preselected" list of software for our Linux machine as set by the distro, or do we branch out and select other configuration managed sources.
Wow! I raised an ineresting question? Who'd'a' thunk it?
I'm not so sure the problem is really apt. Compatability is a takes-two-to-tango proposition. One of the reasons I have learned to shy away from certain repositories is that thay don't include source code, SRPMs, or spec files. How can another developer(or I) readily ensure compatibility without the source or the spec files? This is why I recommend the Dag site and the RPM forge repos. It's all there. Ironically, most of the problems I have had with wierd blow-ups from non Fedora repositories turned out to be the result of the packages from download.fedora.us confilicting with the dag, freshrpms, and dries(collectively trying to merge into RPM forge) repositories. When I replaced these packages from Fedora with the same packages from these sites, the trouble went away. While I still have the occasional problem on these sites, they are usually not catastrophic(eg updating libbonobo and having the entire Gnome desktop removed) and are far far less frequent. I tend to agree with John Robinson, who, uh..., aptly(couldn't resist) pointed out that debian's control over their packages was more important to stability than apt was.
Robert Donovan -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-newbie
