Building A Better Package Manager

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Building A Better Package Manager

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday February 10, 2004 @05:05AM from the something-to-think-about dept.

SilentBob4 writes "Adam Doxtater of Mad Penguin has published a preliminary layout for his proposed cross-distribution package manager capable of adding/removing software from any locale. He is suggesting the interface will basically allow for installation of several major package formats including RPM, DEB, TGZ, as well as source code with the ability to pass build time options. All of this will come at the price of standards of course, including naming, documentation, and package structuring. If this idea were to catch on, it would signify a major leap in desktop Linux usability. This might be a project that UserLinux might benefit from. Read the full column here (complete with GUI mockups)."

7 of 431 comments (clear)

Mnyah! by American+AC+in+Paris · 2004-02-10 05:07 · Score: 5, Funny

Bah, you kids, always inventing your own names for things!
When I was your age, we called 'em by their proper name--athletic supporters!
"Package manager", indeed...

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Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Unifying the Packages by derphilipp · 2004-02-10 05:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Yeah !
Unify those packages.
I am so often confused the RedHat comes in a red box and SuSE in a green one. - Which of those should I buy ?
And Fedora comes with a box you have to fold yourself...

Oh you mean these packages....
(Fedora Linux is included in the RedHat magazine - which has a foldable page for creating a suitable box)

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Spelling mistakes: My is english spoken not tongue of mother.
Re:Again? by Deraj+DeZine · 2004-02-10 05:18 · Score: 5, Funny

What are you talking about? These mockups are clearly slightly different from past years! Perhaps no code has been written, but everyone knows that impressive mockups are the key to building successful open source software with your newly-created SourceForget account.

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True story.
So Yesterday.... by Hornsby · 2004-02-10 05:28 · Score: 4, Funny

Don't they know that it's MozillaFirefox and not MozillaFirebird. This installer obviously isn't going to be able to keep up to date.

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A musician without the RIAA, is like a fish without a bicycle.
Re:This is Tuesday, isn't it? by Deraj+DeZine · 2004-02-10 05:34 · Score: 4, Funny

I have to "manage" my package several times a day!!!

Did you even READ the name of the project I referenced? It's called Autopackage. It takes care of that for you.

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True story.
I've got a much better idea. by Doktor+Memory · 2004-02-10 05:41 · Score: 4, Funny

Let's see if we can actually go for six months without somebody announcing Yet Another Binary Package Management System or Meta-System. That would actually be newsworthy.

The amount of time and money that's been wasted on this problem for over twenty years in the unix world is just mind-boggling. We really do not need to reinvent this wheel again.

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News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
Re:Don't leave out Gentoo! by V.P. · 2004-02-10 06:27 · Score: 5, Funny

I've been doing an emerge -u world for about 2 years now and have never ever had a problem.
Two years huh? How's the good ol' 386SX going?