it was jim's post On Fri, 4 Apr 2003, Tim Wright wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Apr 2003, Nick Rout wrote: > > > This is a good post. > > Can we put a link to Nick's post on the CLUG webpage please :) > > Tim > > (post included for reference:) > > > On Thu, 03 Apr 2003 22:02:51 +0100 > > Jim Cheetham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > On Fri, Apr 04, 2003 at 08:02:56AM +1200, Jason wrote: > > > > Chris, with all due respect, you are wrong IMHO. URPMI works GREAT and I > > > > have yet had it to fail for me... > > > > ... > > > > BTW, there are basically 3 ways to install software in Linux, APT, RPM > > > > and from Source. All have their benefits but with modern packaging > > > > systems dependency hell is a thing of the past for the most part. > > > > > > Dependancy hell is still present in all software distribution methods. > > > ALL of them ... > > > > > > The only way to avoid dependancy problems is to only use packages from a > > > single coherent authority. The moment you try to mix-and-match (which is > > > very common, because whatever package authority you use, will have > > > different goals and interests to yourself) you open yoursef up to > > > dependancy problems. > > > > > > The moment you have anything on your system that did not arrive through > > > your packaging system, problems start to brew. > > > > > > This has nothing to do with the actual packaging system in use, be it > > > RPM, apt, or anything. It's a function of how closely you follow the > > > updates from your central authority. > > > > > > Now, rpm has been criticised in the past, because a package could tell > > > you that it had unsatisfied dependancies, but had no way of telling you > > > how to satify them. I understand that this has been largely addressed > > > with the systhesis list feature. > > > > > > Debian's packaging system had a better knowledge of the "whole world", > > > and such apparently unresolveable dependancies were much rarer. BSD > > > ports is also much more tightly controlled, and less likely to fail. > > > Gentoo seems to have it's packages in order, too ... as does Fink for > > > OSX. > > > > > > However, all of them will cause problems if you don't update often > > > enough. Eventually a package version will come out that needs an update > > > to a core package - one that either you don't feel like downloading, > > > because it's too big, or you don't want to install, because it will > > > require downtime/reboot, or other large-scale changes to your system. At > > > that point in time, you begin to diverge from the central authority, > > > because your goals are different from theirs :-) > > > > > > A couple of examples - I have a FreeBSD server that has a version of NTP > > > thats got a security vulnerability. The fix is a newer version, but > > > that's only been issued for the 'current' version of FreeBSD, not the > > > one I'm running. Either I upgrade my whole OS, which involves downtime > > > on the server, or I do without the ntp package. Planning to upgrade the > > > OS takes a lot of time, it will happen "eventually". In the meantime, I > > > have removed the vulnerable NTP package. > > > (To be fair, BSDs are often set up to download and build everything, but > > > they don't actually install anything until you ask for it ... which is > > > similar to having a binary distribution, at one level) > > > > > > On my Mac, I'm running X and many useful programs, but it's on the end > > > of a slow dialup link. I've installed The GIMP, so I have all the GTK > > > libraries. I'd like to use Konqueror, but I haven't yet got any of the > > > KDE libraries, and they're huge. So I won't install Konqueror, because I > > > don't want to spend n hours of my life handholding the modem through the > > > required downloads. > > > > > > So, if you're happy with the choice of packages your central authority > > > pumps out, you have the bandwidth to download them all, and you don't > > > mind occasional downtime while installing them ... then you're probably > > > running a workstation on an office LAN. In which case, you'll probably > > > be completely happy with urpmi :-) and Mandrake ... > > > > > > -jim > > > > > > > -- > > Nick Rout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > Tim Wright > > Assistant Lecturer > Department of Computer Science > University of Canterbury > > http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~tnw13 > > >
