3 ms·

> No. I said they solve some problems and don't solve others. Yes, they don't solve the problem of distributing messy UNIX software with complex and unstable d

> No. I said they solve some problems and don't solve others. Yes, they don't solve the problem of distributing messy UNIX software with complex and unstable dependency graphs, written for systems with anemic base libraries, that install a litter of files all over your system. That's a good thing. In fact, I'd say the world would be a better place if we'd never implemented package managers and instead UNIXes were finally forced to clean up their mess. The real world doesn't work that way, so instead the best we can do is create new systems that don't inherit the mistakes of the old. > I am yet to meet a non-technical Linux user who has experienced what could be described as "package management disaster". Software management is mostly automated for their use cases. Use cases like, say, trying a new piece of software that hasn't been packaged? Getting updates directly from the vendor? Being able to have their vendor-supplied applications continue to work across major OS releases? Or how about from the vendor perspective, where we have to deal with mistake-prone volunteers packaging up our software, inconsistent and incompatible libraries and an ever-shifting dependency graph. The only reason anything ever works at all is because there are hundreds/thousands of people whose sole contribution is to keep the entire dependency graph afloat. Just how many human hours do you think are spent on software packaging overhead? > I solve my problems, you solve yours. Deal with it. Thanks for elucidating exactly why Linux developed shouldn't be anywhere near the design process for consumer software like an OS.

ZenoArrow 13y ago
You're projecting your view of Linux package management onto Haiku, when the situation with Haiku is going to be pretty different. For starters, let's start with libraries. To use a concrete example, let's say the Cairo vector graphics library. What happens when a program requires Cairo 1.12.14? The library package gets downloaded. What happens when a second program requires Cairo 1.12.13 (i.e. the previous version)? The library gets stored alongside the newer version, so both are available. What happens when a program has forked Cairo, and requires that version? Hopefully the answer is clear. So in this example we have three versions of Cairo. Seems inefficient right? In some ways it is, but efficiencies can emerge when programs do target the same version of Cairo on our system, as the library will already be ready for new programs to use. It's also important to realise in what ways having these three libraries is inefficient. The only real issue here is storage, as we'd probably be looking at three times the storage space for the Cairo functionality. However, as inefficient as this is, it's still more efficient (from a storage point of view) than each application bundling its own libraries, as with installing the libraries separately there's at least a chance of the libraries being shared. There is an alternative, which is to specify library versions that developers should use and bundle these with the system. This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the functionality available to you is easier to scope out. The disadvantages are that recommended libraries get updated less frequently, so if you wish to use a new version you're either forced to wait or bundle your own library, which brings you back to the inefficiencies you had before. Taking time to reflect, I see now that your issue isn't really with package managers per se, but rather that you dislike the 'rolling release' approach of many open-source projects. It's the shifting target that annoys you, how this gets managed is secondary. Would you say that's a fair appraisal?

ZenoArrow 13y ago

You're projecting your view of Linux package management onto Haiku, when the situation with Haiku is going to be pretty different. For starters, let's start with libraries. To use a concrete example, let's say the Cairo vector graphics library. What happens when a program requires Cairo 1.12.14? The library package gets downloaded. What happens when a second program requires Cairo 1.12.13 (i.e. the previous version)? The library gets stored alongside the newer version, so both are available. What happens when a program has forked Cairo, and requires that version? Hopefully the answer is clear. So in this example we have three versions of Cairo. Seems inefficient right? In some ways it is, but efficiencies can emerge when programs do target the same version of Cairo on our system, as the library will already be ready for new programs to use. It's also important to realise in what ways having these three libraries is inefficient. The only real issue here is storage, as we'd probably be looking at three times the storage space for the Cairo functionality. However, as inefficient as this is, it's still more efficient (from a storage point of view) than each application bundling its own libraries, as with installing the libraries separately there's at least a chance of the libraries being shared. There is an alternative, which is to specify library versions that developers should use and bundle these with the system. This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the functionality available to you is easier to scope out. The disadvantages are that recommended libraries get updated less frequently, so if you wish to use a new version you're either forced to wait or bundle your own library, which brings you back to the inefficiencies you had before. Taking time to reflect, I see now that your issue isn't really with package managers per se, but rather that you dislike the 'rolling release' approach of many open-source projects. It's the shifting target that annoys you, how this gets managed is secondary. Would you say that's a fair appraisal?