There are currently at least five popular ways of installing software in GNU/Linux. None of them are widely accepted throughout the popular distributions. This situation is not a problem for experienced users - they can make decisions for themselves. However, for a newcomer in the GNU/Linux world, installing new software is always pretty confusing. The article tries to sum up some of the recent efforts to fix this problem and examine the possible future of packaging software in GNU/Linux.
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Member since:2006-10-08
"Have we have this conversation before but i'll say again. I'd rather use something like synaptic package manager than go looking around the net for looking for software, what is the problem?"
It's because most novce Linux users have migrated from some "Windows" and think using Google is the way to install software. Some of them have problems to accept the easyness of having a built in solution from their OS distribution that does the job for them.
"Besides alot of software what you need is installed anyway on most distros, so don't need to go outside the package manager."
The usual home user should be satisfied with the programs coming along with KDE. In fact, KDE comes with more applications you don't use than you use. :-) If that's not enough, there are apt, yum, yast etc. For example, even PC-BSD has a "dull mode" packaging system (called PBI) - no, it's not dull! In fact, it's great if you're willing to accept having more disk space used in order to completely avoid entering the "dependency hell".
As it's true for most free software, it will be packaged sooner or later for the respective Linux distribution. So there's no need for the average user to "./configure && make install", he just needs to know where the icon of his package manager is located in order to deal with installed software.
Member since:2005-10-18
Member since:2007-01-30
What if the software is not avaailable for my distro? The amount of software available for RHEL (RedHat Enterprise) (or any of RHEL based distros) is ridiculously low. What if one needs RHEL (or compatible) for work but also needs desktop apps not packaged for RHEL?
Or what if one needs new version of a desktop app (say Inkscape, Epiphany, Rhythmbox)? Having to upgrade the entire operating system just to install new versions of a few desktop apps is extremely inconvenient for the end user.
Member since:2005-07-10
daemonologist,
Re: "What if the software is not available for my distro?"
This is a real concern. By having various packaging methods that are not supported by all Linux distributions can make it difficult for third parties to supply binary software, drivers, etc. For example in the post-production film/television industry the Linux standard has always been RPM (ie: RHEL,SLED). The reason for this is Red Hat Linux was first used by studios on standard PC systems to lower cost over using SGI Irix workstations. That change caused commercial software developers like Alias (bought by Autodesk), Discreet (also bought by Autodesk), Softimage, etc to port their software to Linux compiled for RPM installation. These companies used by such studios do not support or offer binary packages for their commercial software to be used on Debian based distributions such as Ubuntu and Linspire.
Re: "The amount of software available for RHEL (RedHat Enterprise) (or any of RHEL based distros) is ridiculously low."
Can you clarify what software you need that is available on a Debian based distribution that is not available for RHEL/Fedora Linux users?
Member since:
2005-11-12
Have we have this conversation before but i'll say again. I'd rather use something like synaptic package manager than go looking around the net for looking for software, what is the problem?
Besides alot of software what you need is installed anyway on most distros, so don't need to go outside the package manager.