Michael Stutz wrote:
>
> Debian's .deb files are pretty similar to RedHat's .rpm; I've even heard
> that RPMs are a variant of the .deb format.
According to the book, "maximum rpm", by Ed Bailey, (which is available
online at:
http://www.rpm.org/MaximumRPM-free.ps.gz
-or- for the rest of the world:
http://www.rpm.org/MaximumRPM-free.a4.ps.gz )
RPM's ancestors were:
RPP, PMS (by Rik Faith et al), PM (produced by Rik Faith and Doug
Hoffman, working under contract for RedHat), and finally RPM version 1.
RPM version 2 was completely rewritten in C by Marc and Erik at RedHat.
So, if Rik Faith has a hand in Debian's package manager, then RPM's
roots
may indeed share roots with Debian's... otherwise, I believe RedHat was
around long before Debian got in the picture.
> RedHat and RPM has definitely
> become the dominant distribution and package format for Linux (everyone else
> in my local LUG uses RedHat exclusively), but so far I've stuck with Debian.
> I like the fact that it's assembled by individuals rather than a company,
> and though I have qualms with the package selection interface tool (packages
> are grouped into categories similar to the ones you'd listed for RPM, maybe
> even identical categories, I'd have to check), the newest version of Debian
> seems to be very easy to install and the package maintenence is great -- it
> has full dependency support, package removal is easy, and you can even
> upgrade a package while the current package is running! It can also read and
> install RPMs; don't know for sure but I bet the reverse is true for RedHat.
I also like the philosophy behind Debian, very much! However, dselect
is the package manager from hell. If you advocate using Debian for the
Artist's CD, then I highly recommend spending some quality time on
developing a friendly front-end for it. Otherwise, I agree... Debian
is now (as of 1.3.x) very easy to get going. It boots Linux from the
CD, using loadlin, or something like that. If Debian could just figure
out
an easier to use package manager for the complete beginner.
>
> email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright (c) 1997 Michael Stutz; this information is
> <http://dsl.org/m/> free and may be reproduced under GNU GPL, and as long
> as this sentence remains; it comes with absolutely NO
> WARRANTY; for details see <http://dsl.org/copyleft/>.
--
Kenneth W. Melvin
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Spiral Computing]
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/8823/index.html
The best thing about Linux is the people who use it!!!
