Package cache

[Gonsolo <gonsolo@gmail.com>]

Hi!

Would it be feasible to add something like a package cache to Debian?

This way only a minimal Debian system would be installed locally on
the hard disk. All other packages are fetched only when used. For example,
user Joe sets his package cache to 400MB and installs Openoffice.
The installation lasts one second because only a few symlinks are created.
When Joe uses Openoffice for the first time, All necessary files are fetched
from the Internet and put in the package cache. So the first startup will be
slow. The next time all necessary files are on the disk and Openoffice starts
as usual.

The package cache is managed with a last-recently-used (LRU) strategy.
So all the packages Joe normally uses are in the cache. When the cache
overflow a package is deleted on the disk. Joe can "pin" some packages
into the cache to avoid statup slowdown.

With a package cache a normal Debian installation would not be hundreds
of megabytes of gigabytes after a few months/years of usage (package
installation) but only 400MB and Joe doesn't have to manually remove
packages when his hard disk is full.

I know disk space is cheap but having hundreds of megabytes wasted for
gnome pixmaps I never see or fonts i never use is annoying.

Thanks,

Gonsolo