[SWLUG] Re: Starting with Linux

[Foeh Mannay]

On Wed, 2005-01-19 at 23:43, Adam Rykala wrote:
> In my Suse install I double click on a RPM and install. 

Now either SuSE has come on a LONG way since I last used it, or that's a
slight exaggeration...

When I last used SuSE (and redhat for that matter) clicking on an RPM
*tried* to install it, but invariably came back with broken
dependancies. At which point I'd download all the dependancies (painful)
and try to install them. Then I'd have even more failed dependancies. I
think I could count the number of apps I upgraded via RPM on one hand!
Tarballs proved to be far more reliable, and ironically, much easier!
YaST was just worthless.

I use debian now, and I have no problems any more. Overnight I went from
hours of toiling for each app to banging in a one-liner and going for a
drink. On the rare occasion there aren't any debs in the repository,
tarballs will do and have a better success rate when I compile them,
because if I need a library I don't have or one needs updating, I can
just apt-get it!

Certainly the install sucked, but at least the package system works.
Does the one in SuSE truly work now? Is YaST finally usable?

Foeh