Comments on: Smart Package Management: The Solution I’ve Been Looking For? http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/04/27/smart-package-management-the-solution-ive-been-looking-for/ because technology is just another ecosystem Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:56:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: stephen o'grady http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/04/27/smart-package-management-the-solution-ive-been-looking-for/#comment-1932 stephen o'grady Tue, 02 May 2006 02:58:42 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=820#comment-1932 DeWitt: you may be right. certainly i've had little success in the past galvanizing interest in the topic - most everybody punted. but i do think that with the addition of Ian, the LSB may be taking a more active look at that particular problem. speculation on my part, but he at least grasps the problem intimately. plus, i think economically we'll begin to see pressure to solve the problem from ISVs, b/c support is becoming a bigger issue. i had seen alien in the past, but it's sort of perma-alpha nature scared me off. good mention, however. as for the .deb point, i agree. i rarely think about it, because Gentoo's library is big enough that there's very little i can't get (pymenu was the last thing i remember) via Portage. but it does seem pointless to me to have people from Debian, Gentoo, et al solving precisely the same problem. whether it'll get solved is a good question, however. Luis: although i've used Red Carpet in the past with some SuSE distributions, i must admit that if it had the breadth of library support that Smart does i was unaware of it, and have certainly never leveraged that. my bad, i guess. in any event, i'm happy to have something less complicated than Zenworks to rally around, because the problem is (IMO) significant. DeWitt: you may be right. certainly i’ve had little success in the past galvanizing interest in the topic - most everybody punted. but i do think that with the addition of Ian, the LSB may be taking a more active look at that particular problem. speculation on my part, but he at least grasps the problem intimately. plus, i think economically we’ll begin to see pressure to solve the problem from ISVs, b/c support is becoming a bigger issue.

i had seen alien in the past, but it’s sort of perma-alpha nature scared me off. good mention, however.

as for the .deb point, i agree. i rarely think about it, because Gentoo’s library is big enough that there’s very little i can’t get (pymenu was the last thing i remember) via Portage. but it does seem pointless to me to have people from Debian, Gentoo, et al solving precisely the same problem. whether it’ll get solved is a good question, however.

Luis: although i’ve used Red Carpet in the past with some SuSE distributions, i must admit that if it had the breadth of library support that Smart does i was unaware of it, and have certainly never leveraged that. my bad, i guess.

in any event, i’m happy to have something less complicated than Zenworks to rally around, because the problem is (IMO) significant.

]]> By: Luis http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/04/27/smart-package-management-the-solution-ive-been-looking-for/#comment-1931 Luis Thu, 27 Apr 2006 23:46:18 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=820#comment-1931 Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm still not seeing what Smart does that Red Carpet didn't do in 2001. Definitely great stuff (again), and I'm glad someone is doing it (again), but it doesn't seem terribly revolutionary to me. But again, maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m still not seeing what Smart does that Red Carpet didn’t do in 2001. Definitely great stuff (again), and I’m glad someone is doing it (again), but it doesn’t seem terribly revolutionary to me. But again, maybe I’m missing something.

]]> By: DeWitt Clinton http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/04/27/smart-package-management-the-solution-ive-been-looking-for/#comment-1930 DeWitt Clinton Thu, 27 Apr 2006 23:04:10 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=820#comment-1930 Personally I don't expect Linux packaging issues to get resolved anytime soon. Even the <a href="http://www.linuxbase.org/" rel="nofollow">Linux Standard Base</a> punted on it, I believe. You're probably already aware of <a href="http://www.kitenet.net/~joey/code/alien.html" rel="nofollow">alien</a>, a tool that "that converts between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats". I'm using mostly .deb based stuff now with Ubuntu, but rarely think about it thanks to apt and apt-get. -DeWitt Personally I don’t expect Linux packaging issues to get resolved anytime soon. Even the Linux Standard Base punted on it, I believe.

You’re probably already aware of alien, a tool that “that converts between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats”.

I’m using mostly .deb based stuff now with Ubuntu, but rarely think about it thanks to apt and apt-get.

-DeWitt

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