Hi Folks!

Does anybody know how the "package manager" at Android works?
Is there really a package manager working in the background or is this only a dumb Download and uninstall Application?

I ask because I've seen how fast this at Android works compared to the N900.
If I run apt-get update at Maemo (with activated extra-devel) it's downloading about 16 MB! At Android it seems to me that it was not very much traffic. (I was unable to check this)

But compared to Maemo it were a lot more Applications in this "Store".

Does anyboy know a little bit about the background how this works at Android compared to Maemo?

I ask here at maemo.org because I would say we have here many technically adept guys around with a lot of knowlage regarding Linux and Nitroid. I hope for a straight answer with a lot of technical fundamentals.

What are you talking about? What "package manager" are you talking about on the Android side? Are you referring to the Android Market? If so, you might want to just casually swing by the Android development site (http://developer.android.com), not talk.maemo.org. I'm not sure how you thought Market development questions would be best answered here.

A dumb package manager = Market Place?

The "market" is really just something that looks like a cool web interface with a big "search" button.

We could probably build something like that for maemo assuming we have a webserver available somewhere...

But... why? Would you really want something like an Android Market on Maemo, if you already have what seems to be a far better debian package manager? Maybe a colorful clown-suit for Application Manager would make better sense?

Maemo obviously needs a Hot Dog Stand theme.

I am not absolutely sure but I think that the android market just downloads a file (.apk) and places it on a certain directory (maybe it puts a file or two for reference in other places so that menu items are created). On the other hand, apt is a package manager for linux. It checks and fulfills dependencies, puts the right files on the right location, configures the installation, backs up old installation files, sets up initialisation scripts etc.
On the other hand the reason you get 16mb of download when you run apt-get update is because the phone downloads the whole list of available applications on the device. The package manager needs it to check for dependencies and to provide info about the apps (apt-cache search)

And in reply to the next posters, app downloader does the market job more than adequately
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LIVE SEX

Thanks a lot qwazix for your reply. I thought it could be something like that but I was myself not sure.

And to the others, my intention was not to rant about the Debian packet manager. My intention was to understand the difference.

Perhaps http://developer.android.com is a better place. But I don't know if there are people, reminding what a real packet manager really does... and I thought this community here is more professional and able to explain objective what the difference is.

And trust me! I don't want a dumb but shiny website shown in something that calls itself "Application Manager". I hate the OVI store for this fact that I have to visit this buggy website. I love how clever apt and dpkg handles the installation on my Device. Not only as a Developer but also as a normal User. We don't need more than our frontend for userfriendly handling of apt-get and dpkg. For those which needs more information is http://maemo.org/packages/ the right place.

Still works better than HAM.

In a way you're comparing apples and oranges.
The repo's have been a linux feature for many years. It wouldn't make sense for a lot of phones to have them so they use things like a web frontend for it.