Why RPM and not DEB?

[lbthomsen]

According to the FAQ, MeeGo will be based on RPM packages and not Debian. WTF? Why would they make that choice? The ONE thing Debian got going for itself is the package handling system which is superior to anything else I have ever seen. Why would they choose to give that up? That simply does not make sense.

[fatalsaint]

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/fr_slingsandarrows/1892_mad_smiley_banging_head_agains.gif

[craftyguy]

http://craftyguy.net/pub/maemo-org-search.png

[Rednektek]

I agree totally.

[go1dfish]

I'm curious about this as well. It was the biggest/only disappointment I had regarding the MeeGo announcement.

[Bec]

Differences please?:)
For a noob.

[fatalsaint]

Differences please?:)
For a noob.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=44597

[SubCore]

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/fr_slingsandarrows/1892_mad_smiley_banging_head_agains.gif

you really couldn't go on without that smiley any longer, so you had to link externally... :D

[egoshin]

According to the FAQ, MeeGo will be based on RPM packages and not Debian. WTF? Why would they make that choice? The ONE thing Debian got going for itself is the package handling system which is superior to anything else I have ever seen. Why would they choose to give that up? That simply does not make sense.

Superior? That's a joke! Software which ASKs me about permission to delete some packages if I just DOWNLOAD yet-another-package, and keep me nervous up to last point presenting that it installs yet-another-package...

BTW, give me please the command line - how to download a SINGLE package from repository and doesn't pull all depending packages? I hesitate to experiment with it because ... see the previous paragraph.

[toto29820]

bring back some good memories about mandriva

[fatalsaint]

you really couldn't go on without that smiley any longer, so you had to link externally... :D

Yes.. this is just one of those times where it was truly necessary ;).

[fmo]

To be honest, I love my Debian and apt-get but these days RPM Management is superior.

[www.rzr.online.fr]

To be honest, I love my Debian and apt-get but these days RPM Management is superior.

Then report wish bugs in dpkg or aptitude :-)

In a few words, please tell ...

btw doesn't SuSe support also apt, can this be adapted to moblin ?

ps : is there a survey on moblin side like that one :
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=44597

[dick-richardson]

Superior? That's a joke! Software which ASKs me about permission to delete some packages if I just DOWNLOAD yet-another-package, and keep me nervous up to last point presenting that it installs yet-another-package...

BTW, give me please the command line - how to download a SINGLE package from repository and doesn't pull all depending packages? I hesitate to experiment with it because ... see the previous paragraph.

What are you trying to accomplish?

[quipper8]

BTW, give me please the command line - how to download a SINGLE package from repository and doesn't pull all depending packages? I hesitate to experiment with it because ... see the previous paragraph.

apt-get -d install PACKAGE-NAME

check in var/cache/apt/archive for the deb

Honestly, from being on meego irc for about a week during the changeover, the biggest reasons for the switch to rpm are:

the lower level stuff is already rpm
they plan to use open build service(OBS) which works a little better with rpm
zypper


all in all, most of these moves will make it easier for DEVELOPERS, which is a good thing IMO. Right now packaging for maemo is more tedious for *some* developers than actually developing. With OBS you will basically just upload your stuff and it will be packaged for you.

As an end user, if you like apt, you will like zypper too. The commands change very little:

zypper install PACKAGENAME
zypper remove PACKAGENAME
zypper search PACKAGENAME

http://en.opensuse.org/Zypper/Usage/11.2#Installing_Packages

[dick-richardson]

zypper purge PACKAGENAME...?

This is a mobile device - I don't have the resources to waste on unneeded dependecies.

[quipper8]

zypper purge PACKAGENAME...?

This is a mobile device - I don't have the resources to waste on unneeded dependecies.

i think it saves old conf files in an rpm cache under var somewhere o r sometimes in the same directory if directory remains after remove, so no there is now purge command, but the old conf files are saved and you can delete them if you want to.

find / -print | egrep "rpmnew$|rpmsave$"

you can pipe this to rm or whatever or total up the size and see if it is really worth worrying about

other than that, hopefully it is coming for dependencies removal

https://features.opensuse.org/300758

supposedly mandriva has something similar now.

[pycage]

I'm also not very fond of the switch to rpm.
Not because rpm is inferior to deb, which it isn't, but because rpm's complexity will possibly lead to problems that you don't have with deb's simplicity.

However, rpm supports delta-rpm which only contain differences. This would certainly be interesting for software updates OTA on 2G/3G.

[togge]

I don't get it.. why wouldn't you want the dependencies for the program your installing??

[slender]

http://craftyguy.net/pub/maemo-org-search.png

Actually DO NOT USE IT!
Use power search (powered by google) it is light years better finding stuff. Offical search just sucks too much or if you are happy iterating trought different keywords and combinations for one minute and you have good nerves then please :)

[fatalsaint]

Actually DO NOT USE IT!
Use power search (powered by google) it is light years better finding stuff. Offical search just sucks too much or if you are happy iterating trought different keywords and combinations for one minute and you have good nerves then please :)

I can find the several RPM v Deb discussions using even the basic search... no need for the power for this one.

[quipper8]

I don't get it.. why wouldn't you want the dependencies for the program your installing??

maybe if you wanted a later better version of a dependent lib.

i think the bigger valid concern is the automatic removal of unneeded dependencies to save on space.

[attila77]

all in all, most of these moves will make it easier for DEVELOPERS, which is a good thing IMO. Right now packaging for maemo is more tedious for *some* developers than actually developing. With OBS you will basically just upload your stuff and it will be packaged for you.

This is ridiculous. What tediousness are you referring to ? With debhelper it takes about two lines (+-1) to create a skeleton package that can be uploaded to the autobuilder. MADDE, py2deb and similar tools give you a ready .deb right off the bat. I understand some people might feel more familiar with a certain set of tools, but that's not really an objective measure for this particular discussion.