Re: Greetings and a minor rave!!
On Thu, Dec 14, 2006 at 06:23:38AM -0600, Nate Bargmann wrote:
> * Douglas Tutty <dtutty@porchlight.ca> [2006 Dec 14 06:07 -0600]:
>
> > Package management is the cornerstone to Debian. The individual
> > packages are installed by dpkg but how they're selected, managed, and
> > have their dependancies resolved is the job of a package manager (that
> > then run dpkg on each package in the right order). There's lots to
> > learn here. Unless you go totally manual and just use dpkg you will
> > probably use apt to fetch packages so you should read the apt HOWTO and
> > the apt user's guide. Then if you use a front-end to apt (aptitude, or
> > others) you should read the aptitude user's manual.
>
> I read a good paper last week on Debian. It posited that everyone
> assumes that package management is the cornerstone of Debian, but it is
> really the policy behind the packaging system that keeps the system
> cohesive and allows it to work at all. It further explained that other
> distributions copy or use apt, but miss on the policy aspect and soon
> fall apart, especially when upgrading. I've even seen this on some
> Debian derivatives.
In my mind, I link package management with the policy. On a recent
thread (it may have been this one but I don't recall) I suggested to a
debian newbie that after the install manual and debian reference, the
policy manual and FHS should be the third thing read to really
understand Debian.
To keep the analogy, package managment is the cornerstone; its what
the user sees. Debian policy is the morter that holds everything
together. One can build a stone wall without morter but unless you
build it differently it will fall apart.
Doug.
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