Choosing A Package Manager on Linux

Today I talk about why package availability is the biggest thing to pay attention to when choosing a new distro.
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[topherfungus]

For some people, the difference in speed between package managers is an issue. For examples, the difference between dnf and zypper, or apt vs. nala. I choose Fedora over OpenSuse TW because the difference is substantial and important especially nowadays where every day there are tons of updates and the time it takes in order to keep your system up to date is noticeable.

[flame.sniper]

It is important, because sometimes the package manager is so ungodly slow...
Looking at you, OpenSUSE, with that 4 hours long update. (with every other distro taking 25 minutes max)

[terrydaktyllus]

For me it has been Gentoo Linux since 2003 and therefore Portage is my package manager of choice. It has "overlays" with a similar concept to the AUR in Arch although sometimes the overlays become unmaintained very quickly and cause errors when you then try to update your systems.

If you want to do some "fiddling around", you can take the "ebuild" of a package in an overlay and install it locally on your system, and then you can keep it updated yourself, usually with just some simple editing.


But these days I stick to the core Gentoo repository ("stable" rather than "testing") and just install from source if I need a package that isn't in the repository - which I would suggest as a good mechanism for anyone else installing software outside of their local repository.

The listed dependencies of a source-based package from, say, Github, can usually be installed by the package manager into the core system and then just install the source-based package to your home directory, which a good package manager should never change anyway - so you can keep them mutually exclusive.

[stephenwilson]

I mostly agree with your point on software availability being mostly universal, but it can depend. There are some specialized apps for work such as development tools that are typically only offered as deb/Ubuntu or RPM. Sometimes they'll have an install script to build it yourself, but not always.

[leblancbot]

emacs is the only package manager that matters
love you matt

[samgould]

I am a Fedora guy, but it still doesn’t have an RPM of everything I need (including in COPR repos). That said, I’ll take it over Arch for the stability. I fill in the gaps with flatpaks, docker containers wrapped in shell scripts and/or desktop entry files, and the occasional source build. The extra effort is worth it for the long-term stability and reliability that I’ve never found with Arch, and Fedora still “just works” in most cases. More than the package manager itself, I think it is important to examine the philosophy of the distro and how it fits your own priorities and capabilities.

[nevoyu]

My biggest issue is how applications are packaged. Not how packages are managed.

[JakeLinux]

I think the big thing is package management preference, not so much that one IS better, more that I LIKE this one better, but that goes for everything in life. Packages and repositories should be the main focus, the tools (or pkg mgr) used to interact with said repos and install needed packages are secondary. I am guilty of this thinking and recommendation myself (see my last vid on why I love void) I tout xbps as a reason I love void, while I love the way xbps handles things and how I interact with it, it is the repo and package availability and stability (controlled by distro/repo, not pkg manager) that I truly like. Great vid Matt.

[danduby]

GSlapt is what Salix uses, and while it's not the most complete package manager, it has everything I need. 4MLinux is also a favorite and has no package manager, but the extensions are good enough.

[BytebroUK]

Not directly related, but kinda. A few months ago I was annoyed with PayPal, for example, because they would not allow me to access my account from my mobile app "because you are running a VPN". I pointed out to their Customer Service people that my high-street bank has an app which I use on my mobile and it has no problem with VPNs, in fact the bank encourages their use, and because they have multiple layers of security and authentication, a VPN origin isn't necessarily be a red-flag. One of the things PayPal said was basically "Well there are a zillion Linux distros out there and we can't do a build for each." To which my response was, "Yes, but you could do FlatPak or similar, and it would likely just work." Got no feedback on that, but *now*, for whatever reason, I *can* use PayPal on my mobile. And it just works. Hey ho!

[anon_y_mousse]

I'll say it again, I really want a universal packager. Not FlatPak, Snap or AppImage, but a proper package manager. The only way that'll work is if every distro decides to collaborate on a design for such a system and builds on it as a base. So in other words it'll never happen, but I'm going to keep saying this until I die.

[ChristianParpartDev]

Being an author and maintainer of open source system packages myself, I keep getting requests for distro X/Y/Z. Truth is, from an author's point of view, I'd LOVE to only care about ONE package system, ideally a modern one, e.g. no freaking old glibc or Qt being too old on that system etc etc. The ONLY way to get there is Flatpak (for non-core apps), sorry to say this, but AppImage isn't there yet (glibc versioning issues!!!). Package maintenance for way too many distros is just a killer when even attempting to maintain a package. So apart from some core distros, GUYS, STOP CREATING YOUR OWN DISTROS. We have way too many of them, you're hurting more than you're fixing. Cheers. ;)

[richardwalters]

New to linux ... coming from mac os ... and was using brew .. but not on fedora ... here's a question I have: can you use multiple package managers ... or should one force using just one ?

[foxcode]

On Debian and Ubuntu you can't upgrade your distro or apt will break, so the package manager is important because if it break there is no longer any package availability.

[Nukelover]

Usually when I hear people pushing a distro branch (Arch/Debian/etc), they are already doing it on the basis of package availability in part, if only by proxy. For instance, a selling point of Arch systems is the rolling release model ... which is fundamentally about package curration (i.e. managing which packages are available). Some people argue for Linux Mint precisely because the packages are old and "stable". Wether rolling release or stable releases are better, or whether they are done well in any case, isn't the point. The point is that people argue over it on the basis of package availability.

[abdulararak]

I think most of users sees packages managera as a whole(program + avliable packages) . Pacman - bleeing edge, apt - older etc

[donaldmickunas]

Which is better? Which is best? Which is the worst? The debates and flame wars rage. Why? For the same reason one person prefers blue while another person prefers red. Personal taste and preference. How many times have we tried something based on a recommendation and didn’t like it or even hated it? Tastes and preferences vary widely. The best distro for you is the one you go back to over and over again. The best package manager is the one you like best..

[peppe]

It's indeed the package for me, preferably without flatpak or so. In my non-empirical mindset I regard that as fluff (and then use KDE, which is all about fluff) I encode a lot of vids and thus prefer the latest version of Handbrake. For those packages I prefer Debian testing over stable, or Arch, OpenSuse, and the list goes on; you get the point. I search thus if those latest versions are available in the repo's of the distro. And then decide. Thnx Matt

[attilasedon]

Matt, I would put an asterisk on it. Because of immutable systems we have a bigger selection, and they all have their own idea how to do an immutable system, Fedora Silverblue, OpenSuse MicroOS, SteamOS 3.0, NixOS, Gnu/Guix, and VanillaOS have all different goals and solutions.

[denizkendirci]

i don't agree on this one. i tried to use slower package managers like apt, dnf, zypper etc. (also tried portage but i can't include it, that wouldn't be fair.) and it was a horrible experience for me. in the 22 years of using linux, i find out that apk, pacman and xbps are the only package manager i can tolarete their speed anymore.

i use a system that idles at 90-95 mb of ram usage. it's an indication that speed is important to me.