up2date vs apt [rant] Re: [PLUG] The Redhat Free Update Ride is ending

[Fred K Ollinger <follinge@sas.upenn.edu>]

> > I've never used up2date.  Recently I've tried apt-rpm.  That works
> > well and it seems to be free.  I'm curious about how apt-rpm works,
> > what it's limitations are, and how it compares to up2date.

Apt is better for debian, but not as good under rh (rh meaning a rh
derived distro, not that company in Durham).

Apt doesn't get all the packages soon enough. up2date packages don't
always work w/ apt. There are oddities like apt not understanding multiple
installs of the same package games that rh likes to do so you get all
sorts of conflicts of you like to automate things on mutilple machines.

My last problem w/ up2date went away, that is not being able to use it w/o
registering (see prior email). Apt under rh is just as sad as up2date in
that you have limited package sources and lower bandwidth (debian's apt is
worldwide) rh's apt and up2date are really slow.

There are times on up2date when I can't even get on b/c of bandwidth
problems, debian doesn't have such problems. If Durham burns then a lot of
customers are going to be in trouble. Debian has mirrors worldwide.

You can't do a dist upgrade in rh's apt any more than you can in up2date.

So basically, if you use rh, realize that you aren't really using free
software in the sense that you are using gnu, it's more like apple-free,
which is better for most people b/c as Baudillard seemed to say: $$ ==
better.

So if you chose rh, you will probably be better off using up2date unless
you really know apt and you plan on rolling all your own packages and
running an apt-rpm mirror. I did that for a while until I found out how to
automate up2date.

The gui is nice on up2date for beginning users. I ran it a few times and
I really did enjoy the animations.

Fred

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