Linked by Amjith Ramanujam on Tue 23rd Dec 2008 00:30 UTC
A next-generation package manager called Nix provides a simple distribution-independent method for deploying a binary or source package on different flavours of Linux, including Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Fedora, and Red Hat. Even better, Nix does not interfere with existing package managers. Unlike existing package managers, Nix allows different versions of software to live side by side, and permits sane rollbacks of software upgrades.
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Member since:2005-07-24
Also, I use RHEL/Centos/Fedora and I do not have problems with broken dependencies.
Me and my clients, too. I also use a Debian based distro on my desktop, and don't have problems there, either. Yet there always seems to be someone flitting about wanting to save us from "dependency hell". It used to be the Debian crowd. But they finally figured out that other distros had package management. Now it seems to be random projects from every which direction coming at us with a mission to unify everything. If in doubt, you can recognize them by their claims that (1) You have a problem, (2) They can solve it, (3) Their product can mess around with your system without interfering with your native package manager, and (4) Your girlfriend will be amazed, and the guys in the locker room will be impressed.
I'll stick with Yum and Apt, thanks.
Edited 2008-12-23 01:18 UTC
Member since:2005-12-18
Well.... I don't think that it's just a matter of "solving dependency hell". I don't think it's a problem of the package manager "per se", but how reliable are RPM based distributions when you are switching from one iteration of the distribution to the next? At least, openSuSE (from what I've heard) hasn't reached the point where you can just "dist-upgrade" just like debian based distros can. How about RHEL4 to 5, or CentOS, Mandriva and so on? Has anybody experienced problems doing that? Has anybody tried?
Member since:2007-09-06
urpmi on Mandriva does what rpm should have in the first place. I've yet to have dependency issues using it and sticking with the plentiful Mandriva repositories. rpmdrake for the GUI requiring users.
apt-get and aptitude for Debian are the same way, no dependency issues there either. Aptitude even tracks what packages are installed by request versus what are installed as dependencies so if you uninstall a package and the dependencies are no longer needed, they go away too. I've yet to use synaptec so I don't know how it is for the GUI requiring users.
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Member since:
2008-11-16
I am wondering how this would solve a problem if the package is not in the channel for downloading?
Also, I use RHEL/Centos/Fedora and I do not have problems with broken dependencies. Maybe this was in the past, however I have installed packages manually and resolved dependencies myself (not recommended). As far as RHEL goes, if it is in the channel if a dependency is missing they will get it fixed asap.
I am not sure about Debian based distro's I have only installed and used Ubuntu for like less than 10 minutes and deleted it off and re-installed Fedora...