Re: Packaging formats

[Alan Shutko <ats acm org>]

Matthew C Barry <muramas@oitunix.oit.umass.edu> writes:

> Packaging is definitely cool, but .deb is LIGHT YEARS ahead of .rpm.

This really should be decided by the LSB people.  But I'm interested
in why .deb is "light-years" ahead of .rpm.

> mean, keeping rpm compatibility is... neato.  But... debian packages are
> simply better, in many respects (not the least of which is that if you
> want to install an rpm, you need to find it and dl it, whereas if you want
> to install a .deb, its "apt-get install <package-name>" =).

This is not a function of the packaging.  It's a function of
infrastructure which could be adapted to RPM, and the fact that
debian-based dists haven't diverged as much as RPM-based ones (yet),
so for now debian packages can be used on any debian-based dist.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
246 days, 23 hours, 13 minutes, 5 seconds till we run away.
All a man needs out of life is a place to sit 'n' spit in the fire.