Should we leave dpkg?

["Riku Voipio <riku.voipio@sci.fi>" <neurochp@kitchen.pp.sci.fi>]

Thinking of the issue, I remember the reason why I decided to 
install Debian on my system. The one and only reason was, 
that Debian's package system really _Works_. 

Redhat in the other hand, was (is?) a pain to upgrade. You had to
upgrade all and everething, and skipping versions was out of question.
I know that many people agree and some them believe now, that 
package-based upgrading doesn't work.
They went back slackware, where upgrading means compling by hand, 
or re-installing the whole system.

Today, I'd also recommend Debian because it has every piece of free
software avaible as a .deb package, and that the packages are (nearly
always ) up to date... AFAIK, only debian has a pgp and ssh packages.

-

Nevertheless, most commercial apps come as .rpm :s (what does
yggrassil use?). So Debian should support it some way format.
But to use it everywhere? Why? 

Because it's more popular?
 Slackware's "packaging system" is even more popular ;) If 
 commercial application makers prefer rpm, that's their problem, 
 because debian is based on free software.

Because we want all Linuxes to carry the same packaging system? 
 The Idea is neat, BSD does it already, and It would make
 Everyones life easier. But using the same Ideology, we could
 Just decide, that Linux needs only one distribution, editor,
 MTA, mail-application... 

 Healthy competition can't be bad, but I agree, that the Linux / free
 *nix world needs more co-operation, mainly because we aren't big. 
 
 Ideological would be, if Redhat / Caldera would decide to use Debian as
 the skeleton, and just add a The commercial stuff on the top...
 
 Could it happen? At least "someone from Caldera" said in the 
 "debian-user", that it's basicly of question, because of backward
 compatibility issues. That's another reason knit rpm tightly in.

 Would it be impossible to make a "install method" that would peek 
 the redhat / slakware "installed" info, check from a list what packages
 have debian alternatives, and install the corresponding debian
 packages on top of them to convert the system to a Debian? 
  
Because rpm is superior?
 I dont think it's the case. In real world situations, Debian 
 has proved superior. (At least in my case, and most I've heard). 
 _If_ rpm would one day be better than deb, _and_ there would be a reason 
 that that deb could not be made equal or better, then I wouldn't 
 object changing to rpm. 

-

Just try to Imagine, what work would have to be done, to make debian rpm 
based. 


So this was my long way of saying no :) 







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