On Saturday 12 Jun 2004 05:36, David E. Fox wrote: > On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 08:00:39 -0500 > > The Other <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Suggestions for a package manager? The down side is that I have a > > 56Kb Modem to use to get the updates. > > Well, a package manager per se is really a database front end, and the > database is either going to be what's in /var/lib/rpm, or the equivalent > in an apt-get based system, or what have you. Other distributions have > package management systems -- for instance, apt in debian and derived > distributions, emerge for gentoo, packman for arch, and so forth. I've > heard for instance that apt is superior to what we have (urpmi) but I am > skeptical. It boils down to whether or not you have good repositories, > more than whether or not your system is apt based or urpmi based, at > least in my humble opinion :). > > One person in particular has been thinking along the lines of "apt-get > Mandrake" as he puts it, saying that apt is better than urpmi. I'm not > so sure, but it's intriguing. I tried apt once on Mandrake a while ago, > and wasn't really impressed with the results. But I think my experience > was because there wasn't a good source list set up. > > He also mentioned something called "synaptics" - I am not sure of the > exact spelling, since a google search gave me mostly results for some > touchpad device.
There are two issue here. First is the structure of the packages themselves, 'deb' as opposed to 'rpm' The package has to contain the binary code plus all the necessary information about the dependencies required, plus scripts to manage the installation of the packages. In this respect 'deb', and 'rpm' are in my (inexpert) opinion broadly similar. What really matters is the quality of the *packager* (How well they have defined the dependencies, or the quality of the scripts they have included with the package) The second issue is which front end you use to install your packages with. As Mandrake users we are very lucky to have URPMI. It does an excellent job of examining a packages dependencies and working out how to locate and install them. (It baffles me why RedHat do not use urpmi) In the Debian world the equivalent to urpmi is apt-get (command line), and its popular GUI front end Synaptic. Urpmi and apt-get do much the same job. It is possible to use Synaptic with rpm packages as well as deb packages, and some people do prefer to use it. For example Texstar's PCLOS distro http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/index.html?PHPSESSID=e68771a03160a6f32ebec0e27ea7f988 Synaptic is certainly a nice front end, and it is certainly possible to use it with Mandrake. But do not think that it is better at resolving dependencies than urpmi because they are both constrained by the quality of the packages, and they are the same rpm packages urpmi uses. derek BTW: I would certainly recommend PCLOS to newbies. It is a 'liveCD' distro it boots from CD into a fully working Linux environment with Nvidia drivers, Flash, Acrobat etc already installed. It is simple to then install it permanently to hard disc, and then you have a very complete Linux desktop environment. -- www.jennings.homelinux.net http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org
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