[KLUG Members] Package Manager Problems

[Matty]

Debian and APT rock. I am hoping Redhat catches on and
incorporates similar functionality into "redhat-config-packages."
I am still confused why Redhat doesn't provide a up2date
channel with newer pacakges. Offering newer revs of Mozilla,
Evolution and Gnome would rock. 

- Ryan


On Thu, 2002-11-28 at 13:07, Jamie McCarthy wrote:
> Happy Thanksgiving!  Today I'm thankful for Debian's "apt" :)
> 
> "apt" is a gorgeous tool that makes two things trivial for any
> internet-connected machine:  installation of any supported package,
> and updates of all installed packages.  Dependencies are handled
> extremely well.
> 
> To install a supported package named "foo":
> 
>     apt-get install foo
> 
> To do a system-wide update of all installed packages (notably, to
> catch up with all security updates):
> 
>     apt-get dist-upgrade
> 
> The security benefit is huge.  I no longer have to hang out on
> listservs and watch webpages to notice security updates for the
> flavor of Linux that I happen to be running.  I just trust that the
> package maintenance folks will be quick about getting security fixes
> into the apt database.  All I have to do is "apt-get dist-upgrade"
> a couple of times a week and any security fixes are automatically
> installed.
> 
> Not only does this save me *tons* of time in worrying about security,
> it makes my systems more secure, because this is easy enough that I
> actually *do* apply fixes on a regular basis.  I installed OpenBSD
> a few years back and while it was really secure at the time, I never
> was sure if I was installing patches properly and soon enough, so
> after a year I no longer had confidence that it was still secure.
> 
> With apt, dependencies are automatically handled.  Installation will
> often install a bunch of other stuff on your system, and while it
> will tell you about it you don't have to care.  Very few packages
> require configuration at install time.  On updates, any changes
> you've made to config files are presented to you and you can diff
> the conflicts, pick old or new, or edit the file right there.
> 
> You decide how cutting-edge you feel at install time (and can change
> it later, with only a bit of difficulty).  My DNS server and backup
> server is on "stable" because it doesn't need features and security
> is most important to me.  The rest of my systems are all on
> "testing," which is a good compromise between stability and the
> cutting edge.
> 
> There's also "unstable" for those who want the very latest versions
> of everything, but it sometimes does break, and a couple times a
> year it will break badly enough to require some manual poking around
> by someone who knows what they're doing, to get apt back on its
> feet.
> 
> Since switching to Debian a couple of years ago, I haven't ever
> looked back.  At this point, for any machine that I want to get work
> done on, I would never consider using a unix that doesn't have
> one-line internet-savvy installation and maintenance of packages,
> supported over the whole distribution from the kernel up.
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