Re: APT v. YUM

[mike808@users.sourceforge.net]

"Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org> wrote ..
> On Sun, 2004-11-21 at 14:46, mike808@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
> > I guess the Fedora folks just couldn't find the courage to pick APT
> > to replace the now apparently legacy "rpm".
> 
> Now hold on!  Don't compare APT to RPM, they are _two_different_things_.
> Compare DPKG to RPM (back-ends), and APT to YUM (front-ends).

My bad. You are correct.

I guess the proof of my point is really the answer to this question:

Why is there no "YUM for dpkg"?

>From there, Red Hat decided that it would work on YUM.

That's where the NIH fits in. RH doesn't directly benefit themselves, and put themselves in a "leadership position" on package management tools by choosing APT. In the APT world, APT4RPM is just another "me-too" APT implementation. In the YUM world, since RH invented RPMs, and YUM only supports RPMs, by picking YUM, that puts RH in the driver's seat on YUM development.

Which leads me back to why I asked why is there no "YUM for dpkg"?

The answer is because RH has no interest in funding it, which will, I believe, make YUM a niche player -- by RH, for RH, and as a result, really only useful 
to RH. I can point to GNOME as what I see as a similar set of circumstances. However, past performance is no indicator of future performance, as they say.

This is shaping up to look like a case of free software competing in a free marketplace. In a BSD sort of way, it exemplifies the Darwinian notion of code evolution, in that good code survives.

On the other hand, duopolies are tending to do very well right now in our institutional constructs. We have been shaping all sorts of things into duopoly controlled systems -- our US government being the prime example, but it goes all the way back to the primordial "good" vs. "evil". Obviously, whichever side _you_ pick is "good", and anyone choosing dis-similarly must therefore be "evil". But that's another discussion, best completed over two or ten beers. :=)

Mike/

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