On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 4:20 AM, Michael Torrie <torr...@gmail.com> wrote: > A bit off topic here, but all of this highlights major weaknesses in the > Linux software distribution model. While we Linux nerds like to poke fun > at Windows for not even having a proper package manager until Windows > 10, in fact the package manager is not always the best way to go. Works > well for core system parts, and for distro maintainers. But it sucks > miserably for developers, and to a lesser degree, end users. I should > be able to have a stable core distro like RHEL 7 (or any distro), but > develop and distribute apps for Python 3 easily. Say what you want > about Red Hat's Poettering, but what he says about this problem makes a > lot of sense: > http://0pointer.net/blog/revisiting-how-we-put-together-linux-systems.html.
It most assuredly does NOT suck for end users. Apart from issues of naming (grab "avconv" or "ffmpeg"?), it's easy - if someone needs to do audio manipulation, I can tell him/her to "sudo apt-get install sox" and that'll get the necessary program on any Debian-based distro, and likewise one command for any Red Hat distro. I'm not sure what you mean by "for developers" - do you mean that it's hard to package your software for each distro? Because the package manager benefits you even if you don't package your own program. Imagine you need a PostgreSQL database for your Python application - which also means you need psycopg2, of course. How do you go about writing installation instructions? * WINDOWS * 1) Install the latest Python 3 from https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/ 2) Install the appropriate version of psycopg2 from http://www.stickpeople.com/projects/python/win-psycopg/ 3) Install the latest PostgreSQL from http://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/ 4) Install my program from blah blah blah * LINUX: Debian-based * 1) As root, type: apt-get install postgresql python3-psycopg2 2) Install my program from blah blah blah * LINUX: Red Hat-based * 1) As root, type: yum install postgresql python3-psycopg2 2) Install my program from blah blah blah (I don't have a Red Hat system handy to check, so the above examples might need to be tweaked. But you get the idea.) Without actually going to any effort to build your own packages, you can still take advantage of one-command installation of all your dependencies. Without a package manager, you have to assemble them from all over the internet. I call that a benefit :) ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
