Slashdot Mirror
Autopackage Universal Package Manager
nanday writes "I currently have an article on Linux.com about Autopackage. Autopackage is developing a universal package manager for the GNU/Linux desktop, separate from the package management for the system. It includes installation for individual users, a lot of concern for interface design and documentation, and some ideas about the future of package management that are sure to raise some debate." From the article: "Besides ... technical problems, the Autopackage team believes that managing system and desktop software together is a mistake. It requires developers to pay attention to desktop applications that are of secondary importance to them, and confuses end users with problems about dependencies and upgrades." Linux.com is a sister site to Slashdot. (say that three times fast)
"Native package managers' dependency detection depends on a database. Autopackage, on the other hand-detects dependencies by actually scanning for them."
Such a simple idea, such an absurdly simple idea. Yet it's one that 9 out of 10 distros just can't manage to get right. Building one library yourself should NOT break your entire package management system. A minor bugfix release to a library where no ABI has changed should NOT necessitate an update to every application that uses it.
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