[ale] SUSE package manager and install empathy

[Jim Kinney]

> I just always marveled at why the .rpm world kept trying to invent
> something when apt-get worked and worked very well, or portage (the only
> system I know that is *better*).  Hell, I got into debian because I was
> forced to use apt4rpm on my rh system because I could not get anything
> to install.  I figured if that worked so well, perhahps I should go find
> out where it came from.
>

My Linux distro history is getting fuzzy but I thought the rpm was
invented by redhat to fill a void as no distro had a working package
manager at the time. Not even Debian. (tarballs from slackware don't
count!) Rpm was very raw in it's first incarnation and Debian then
created the dpkg that resolved those first ugly spots. Debian had the
first networked repo system and it pretty much worked right out of the
box well enough to make dbheads very very happy. YellowDog Linux
systems (redhat for PPC) created yum and aside from some package
screwups (fedora releasing a broken yum tool! fscking nice screwup!)
it has been pretty solid. Most of the "extra stuff" third party yum
repos have now been consolidated so a package install from those
doesn't break things from the main fedora repos. rpmfind is an
outstanding broken repo source. Debian repo stuff "just works" because
there's only one (plus mirrors). OK. Now two with Ubuntu having their
own.

-- 
--
James P. Kinney III
I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.