I don't think it is. Redhat and centos are very common server platforms. Maybe in startup world it is but older companies have been deploying own apps with rpm

I don't think it is. Redhat and centos are very common server platforms. Maybe in startup world it is but older companies have been deploying own apps with rpms for a while. You can download RPM for multiple paid software apps today. I am very surprised when I want to install an app and don't see it to be honest. When I use RPM for my own apps I think of it as a self contained blob of data that has everything required to run an application . Basically a tarball on steroids which let's you version, upgrade and list dependencies. For example of you are doing a django app it's a decent way to not depend on pip and/or the external world to deploy your software and achieve immutable builds.