Re: A Linux Newbie's Main Issue With Linux

On Tue, 2003-08-19 at 21:38, Bill Wisse wrote:
> On Tuesday 19 August 2003 04:01, Chris Knadle wrote:
> > Paul -
> >
> > > My complaint is with the way applications are distributed in Linux.  This
> > > business of getting the application then when you try to install it you
> > > learn that there are dependencies that you have to go find, and then
> > > guess what one of those dependencies has dependencies of it's own that
> > > must be found and installed before you can load that dependence,  and
> > > there are four different versions of a dependence so which one does your
> > > application require? This is just insane!
> >
> >    Yes, what you are describing is known as "dependency hell" and is one of
> > my main complains concerning distributions that use .RPMs like RedHat,
> > Mandrake, etc.
> 
>  Sorry, I disagree with that. IMVHO dependency problems have nothing to do 
> with RPM's per se. It is a Linux annoyance.
> If a dependency problem excist it will come up when using RPM but ALSO when 
> you using TAR.
> 
Dependency hell happens when you download your binaries from the
sources. i.e. If im not to deal with dependency hell, I would get my
rpms from apt-get, redhat network or red-carpet.
If I want to deal just a little bit with dependency hell, then
freshrpms.net or some other place that offer rpms for some distro would
be ok.

Building my own rpm from a targz usually solves dependency hells as well
(though it may be switched for hacking rpm spec files and/or source
files), and sometimes I will need to install libraries, but usually they
come with redhat's binaries cds or could easily be found from the links
where i got the tar.gz or from freshmeat.

Anyway, I am much happier with the little hell here than with windows
(where I wouldnt know where the hellish dlls weres tored). At least, we
have package management with deb and rpm and others (distro and tastes
dependant)