Re: Non-Debian Provided Packages

[Chris Burkhardt <chris@mretc.net>]

Miles Fidelman wrote:
> Paul Johnson wrote:
>> Jason C. Wells wrote:
>>  
>>> Is it advisable to install non-Debian provided packages?
>>> For example .deb files are out for openoffice3 but they haven't made
>>> their way to lenny yet.  It seems like the Sun provided .deb files
>>> aren't quite so slick with handling dependencies.  That or I am
>>> missing some important bit of understanding on how .debs work.
>>>     
>> Generally, not advisable.  OOo3 is in experimental right now if you're
>> looking for the Debian package for that.
>>   
> While I love apt for most things, I've installed lots of non-debian
> packages, using the basic configure; make; make install approach.  For
> many packages, that's the only way to get the latest version.  I've yet
> to get Sympa to work from its .deb, for example.

If you go that route, I'd suggest something like stow to keep everything tidy
and easy to uninstall:

http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/

- Chris Burkhardt