Chris on 13 May 2005 14:32:49 -0000


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

RE: [PLUG] Drexel MCS Society Debate


I have always seen apt/yum as having a double edge sword. On one hand all
you need to do is run a simple command and the software is installed with
all its dependencies. On the other hand, you lose a lot of control over
versioning, paths, etc which can be detrimental to the rest of the system. I
find myself falling back on make more and more often when checking for
dependency problems.

...just my two cents...



Chris


-----Original Message-----
From: plug-bounces@lists.phillylinux.org
[mailto:plug-bounces@lists.phillylinux.org] On Behalf Of Daniel Kozlowski
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 10:27 AM
To: art.alexion@verizon.net; Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Drexel MCS Society Debate

On Fri, 2005-05-13 at 09:32 -0400, Art Alexion wrote:
> Stephen Gran wrote:
> 
> >On Thu, May 12, 2005 at 11:37:39PM -0400, eric@lucii.org said:
> >  
> >
> >  
> >
> >> 8   Installation / Uninstallation 
> >>        This is in regards to both OS (including updates 
> >>        and patches) and software, the difficulty level of 
> >>        installation / uninstallation, and the user's experience. 
> >>       [I've had some real screwed up windows installs and some
> >>        REAL SMOOTH Linux installs]
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >At this point, I would assume they are about the same - a nice GUI
> >RedHat or something install is probably about as flashy as your average
> >MS install.  There are GUI tools for package management on both sides,
> >so I think this is largely a no-op as far as ease of use goes.
> >
> >Plenty of arguments about having to wait for vendor updates, though :)
> >  
> >
> In my limited experience, Linux software installs get frustrating when
> entering a dependency spiral-into-hell.  However, this is in fact an
> advantage as installing Linux software rarely "breaks" another
> application.  My MS experience has been that all of the common libraries
> needed are installed each time a piece of software that needs them is
> installed.  The libraries are stored in a "system" directory that is
> accessible to all.  Version tracking is weak, so a DLL that "App B"
> installs, breaks "App A" without warning.


While it is true that you can easily get into a dependency spiral Linux
has found a way around this with software repositories such as debian
APT or Gentoo Portage or Red Hat YUM
> 
>
___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --
http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements -
http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion  --
http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
-- 
Daniel Kozlowski <dhk24@drexel.edu>
Drexel Univerisity

___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug