On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 13:30:50 -0600 (MDT), Bruce Sass wrote: >>> Since people keep telling us that apt-get is braindead, and that >>> aptitude does a better job, I tried that too, with similarly scary >>> results. Since aptitude's output is more compact, I include it here. >> >> In my experience, aptitude has its own set of problems. Alas, nothing is >> perfect. > >Don't forget about dselect. If the APT tools are not giving you >enough control then maybe dselect will, especially if you don't use >the apt method for fetching packages.
I'm sorry ... I've used dselect. I still have bad dreams about the hours I spent lost wandering round in there (not to mention in its so-called help system). IMHO it's user interface exemplifies the phrase "as user friendly as a cornered rat". I can't imagine what the designers were thinking of when they dreamed it up. I understand that it (apparently) gives the best level of control over packages, and it sure is very quick at whatever-the-hell-it-is that it does, but I won't use it again unless I'm being beaten with rubber hoses to force me to. If apt hadn't existed, I might even have been forced to give up using Debian because of the thought of having to use dselect for package management. [phew] I feel better now ... thankyou for letting me share that with you ;-) Nick Boyce Bristol, UK -- Remember: If brute force doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
