Before I get started I'm only looking at this from a face value perspective.
The nitty gritty details I'm sure will come out later in this thread if it
becomes one : )
RPM is reliable, it has proven to be so for the most part. But deb truely has it
beat in more than one way.
Dependancy handling... For one the package system is not decentralised
which gives it the upperhand on dealing with dependices and the over all
system(DB) of packages.
The the second, which really attracts most
users is apt, nothing really needs to be said about this other than it can't get
any better than this. Run time dist upgrades is another advantage of apt. It's
plain as day that 'apt-get dist upgrade' is a much better soulution than trying
to figure "do I need this or this or this ?" from an ftp mirror of mandrake.
I've talked to a lot of ex-mandrake users who switched to debian simply for apt,
and who also said they wouldn't gladly switch back if RPM was hacked up to be
more robust, flexiable, and reliable as deb(dpkg,apt).
There's only one of two solutions here.
1) Simply get hands dirty by diving into the RPM source code and hack it up
2) Switch to debian package system
The first is a waste of time and man power IMHO.
Debian's package system is right there to be used, why try to re-invent the
wheel ? It just doesn't make sense to do so.
But what are the drawbacks ? Are there any at all ?
Personally I don't see so, but I'm really only touching on this subject at face
value.
I await the flame : )
--
Bryan Paxton
"How should I know if it works? That's what beta testers are for. I
only coded it."
-- Linus Torvalds.
Public key can be found at http://speedbros.org/Bryan_Paxton.asc
