The short answer is that packages don't work across distros. Or perhaps I could say they shouldn't be expected to work across distros. The longer answer is tha

The short answer is that packages don't work across distros. Or perhaps I could say they shouldn't be expected to work across distros. The longer answer is that in situations where one distro has descended from another (probably the most well know example being Ubuntu descending from Debian) it is possible to use an Ubuntu package on Debian or vice versa, I've done it. But you should have a really good reason to do this and have done your homework (I can only think of one occasion where I did have a good enough reason to do this, and it didn't last long). This is possible (though not recommended) because all the distros that descend from Debian use the package management system derived from Debian also, which is incidentally the best one, IMO. If you wish to know more about what makes it the best and the policy that guides how packages move through the different Debian releases (Experimental, Unstable, Testing and Stable), check out this link: http://newpeople.debian.org/~srivasta/talks/why_debian/talk.html http://newpeople.debian.org/~srivasta/talks/why_debian/talk.... Particularly, you could read the section titled "Quality of implementation". I assume something similar would apply to Red Hat and all the distros that descend from it for example... Their package management policy just doesn't work as well is all. :)