[kwlug-disc] What's the best desktop distribution?

[Lori Paniak]

On Thu, 2010-02-04 at 13:04 -0500, Paul Nijjar wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 04, 2010 at 07:53:46AM -0500, Lori Paniak wrote:
> > 
> > In a deb-based system, I can upgrade *all* installed applications and
> > the OS with two lines:
> > 
> > apt-get update
> > apt-get upgrade
> 
> .... provided you have installed ONLY packages from APT repositories.
> This has always been an issue with Perl modules, but it is getting
> worse with Ruby gems and Drupal modules and who knows what else. I am
> increasingly growing to believe that Debian package management is
> ill-suited for the kinds of applications people actually want to run. 
> 
> At some point a Gentoo advocate will speak up and tell me why the
> underlying problem lies in binary package formats. I can believe it,
> but I am not sure that Gentoo is the right answer either. 
> 
> Sigh.
> 
> - Paul


I agree that not all software people want to run is in apt repositories
- but it should be!  The problem isn't with apt, but rather with people
not using apt.  Press the software devs to provide deb packaging or ask
for packaging on the appropriate Debian(or ubuntu) list.

As a last resort, there is nothing to stop you from creating your own
deb packages - even if all the package does is copy a pile of php into a
directory.  With the appropriate install and remove scripts, you can
cleanly automate upgrades.  Put the packages in your own local repo and
tell sources.list about it then you use your favourite dkpg frontend to
manage them.

You can even build deb packages for your proprietary software.
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