I disagree with your claim of their primary use. They're for installing software; the convenient upgrades and dependency management are merely a side effect of

I disagree with your claim of their primary use. They're for installing software; the convenient upgrades and dependency management are merely a side effect of handling that task correctly. Also, from TFA, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNR_(software) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNR_(software)