On Wednesday 31 January 2007, Kerry Mayes wrote: > So "alien" isn't worth trying? I'd like to know a lot more about the details before I suggested that.
> (For someone who _really doesn't_ know what they are doing?) A long time ago, I had one success and a complete failure using alien. iirc, & it was many years ago, the Infomix database was the success, and DB/2 was the abject failure. The problem is that if you ignore the packaging system offered by the distributors by installing alien packages, you can so easily stuff up the library dependencies that you slowly end up with a completely borked computer. Not exactly a good introduction to a new user. > On 31/01/07, Christopher Sawtell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I have a question about Compatibility between distros: > > > If I install a distro that uses, for example, RPMs can I also use > > > .tar.gz, .deb and other package formats if apps are not available in > > > RPM format? > > > > The short answer is: No. > > The long answer is: Yes, but you have to _really_ know what you are > > doing.
