Remember Automatix? Yes the nifty little application that made installing additional softwares on the Ubuntu system a breeze. Here comes the same for Fedora 9, FedoMATIX (v0.1Beta). It currently works on the command line only, but supports more than 60 additional softwares/apps already. The next version, which is due release in 2 months, will feature a GUI and many more softwares and hacks.
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Member since:2005-11-02
Adding an easier-to-use more special-purpose apt front end would be fine, and it would address the shortcomings you find with synaptic. The answer is *not* to add in an additional third party package manager.
By layering on more software about which the normal system--and by this I mean apt--is completely ignorant is a recipe for disaster. First of all, package management is a hard problem which automatix solves not at all. It just throws stuff on and hopes it will work. Secondly, since apt does not know about the random junk that may or may not have been thrown on it cannot handle it gracefully and is more likely (more apt? hehe) to break in the future.
Adding non-apt stuff to a Debian-type system is fine, if you know what you're doing. Users of automatix almost by definition do not possess that kind of expertise.
What would be wrong with doing *exactly* what automatix does, GUI-wise, and providing *exactly* the same software, but in the form of .deb files in an apt repository? It would be entirely possible, and actually easier since you would be leveraging the existing capabilities of the system. No one would object to such a tool.
Instead you have automatix which, much in the manner of DOS and Windows installers of old, charges through your system in an uncontrolled and irresponsible manner, changing who knows what with completely unknown consequences.
Fedora users should stay away. They already have a package manager.
Edited 2008-07-07 11:31 UTC
Member since:2006-09-29
Amen!
I liked the idea of Automatix, I didn't like the non-Debian way in which it was implemented.
Besides, I'm even somewhat leary of using backports on an Etch installation, which is why I have use Etch to work, Lenny to play, and Sid to learn.
Of course, Ubuntu isn't Debian stable either.
Member since:2006-02-05
Member since:2006-10-25
I have had Automatix kill Ubuntu before (failed to upgrade properly).
Ubuntu-Restricted-Extras metapackage contains mp3, flash, java, gstreamer codecs, mstfcorefonts, and much more.
If metapackages solve this newbie problem, what problem is automatix solving? And is Automatix creating more problems than it solves?
Edited 2008-07-07 14:51 UTC
Member since:
2007-06-06
the terminal is the ace up your sleeve.
For me apt-get is enough :-), but I think that even Synaptic is still not enough for a totally new person to linux/ubuntu. For example, once you write mp3 or avi in Synaptic you get dozens of packages to choose from. Automatix, on the other hand, used to give very easy way to install essential stuff such as mp3 and avi support.
Edited 2008-07-07 05:13 UTC