On Sat, 6 Apr 2019 08:07:41 -0000 (UTC) Curt <cu...@free.fr> wrote: > On 2019-04-05, Lee <ler...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Can't [whatever installs the software] notice that Gnome is > > installed/selected & not install synaptic? Or patch synaptic to > > realize it's running under Gnome & spit out an error message and > > quit? > > > > Everybody pays the price because it doesn't work with Gnome seems a > > bit much. > > My impression from my general reading here is quite a few people rely > on the synaptic package manager. I use apt-get; it's pie-like > simplicity comforts me. > > Thing is, beyond its innate and fundamental heresy (a gui app running > as root!), synaptic is the only GUI package manager available in > Debian AFAIK (I'm uncertain whether kpackage is defunct or not). > There are those uncomfortable with the command line, sometimes even > to the point of panic, so not having a GUI alternative to such a > critical piece of software might be devastating for some. > > Then again, this is all a matter of supposition on my part, and as I > don't see much genuine devastation in this thread, maybe I'm wrong. >
There are other reasons. I generally use aptitude on sid, but every now and then, there's an upgrade that wants to remove ninety packages because part of gcc/gtk/kf5/perl/whatever is going to be upgraded, but not all of it is ready. I generally switch to Synaptic, as I can then quickly find out which packages can be upgraded without devastation, and just leave the problematic ones. Yes, it can be done in aptitude. No, it cannot be done as quickly, or at least I can't do it as quickly. And there was one occasion when I managed to upgrade everything with Synaptic, that it was just a matter of doing the upgrades in batches in the right order. Aptitude is normally good at that kind of thing, but not when a hundred packages need to be done in stages. I also find Synaptic easier when I'm searching for a package to do a particular job. Again, aptitude can do that, but I find it more difficult. If there was no point to using a GUI, it would never have been invented, and we'd still be on the command line for everything. My server is command-line only, but I don't use that for working, just admin. -- Joe
