Re: Another Linux distro (and package format) launced

[Chris Waters <xtifr@dsp.net>]

Kenneth Scharf <scharkalvin@yahoo.com> writes:

> ARGHHH yet another linux distro has been anounced with yet another
> package file format!

> http://www.g2-linux.com/G2.pre-release_announcement.html

I think that's a good thing.  Maybe it'll provide us with incentive to
turn dpkg into something maintainable.  :-)

I think that in the LONG run, it would be nice if the world had a
single, standardized package format for all OSes, but in the short
term, it's nice to have a bunch of independent projects going so we
can get more of a feel of just what features the ideal package system
needs, and which it doesn't.  Freedom is.

I may think .deb is the best *existing* package format, but I most
certainly do not think it's ideal.  I think there's plenty of room for
research and experimentation.  For one thing, the split into "source"
and "binary" packages causes a lot of files (man pages and other docs,
scripts, etc.) to be stored redundantly, which is a waste of disk
space on our servers and such.  For another, we don't really have any
*convenient* way for a local sysadmin to maintain a set of local
patches to an existing package (this is a major issue in my eyes).
-- 
Chris Waters   xtifr@dsp.net | I have a truly elegant proof of the
      or    xtifr@debian.org | above, but it is too long to fit into
http://www.dsp.net/xtifr     | this .signature file.