lucky13
Group: Members
Posts: 1478
Joined: Feb. 2007 |
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Posted: June 27 2007,15:56 |
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| Quote | | Most desktop users of the 2 most popular OSs don't really know what a full-blown package and dependency manager is, and don't really want one, even if it exists. |
I don't think most Linux users do, either. That's why there's been mass migration from Red Hat and RH-based distros for RPM to Debian for apt and now to Ubuntu since its repositories are more bleeding edge and the tools used by default in Ubuntu are more automagical. And I agree with you that tools like zero-install will likely eventually attract more users.
Linux users increasingly want the same ease as in Windows of just downloading something, double-clicking, and then it installs itself. Windows can do that more transparently because MS has standardized most of the libraries (DLLs) that things need; anything with an odd library will add it to the system during installation. In contrast, Linux has disparate libraries which is why there's a certain frequency of encountering dependency issues. Otherwise, there's really very little difference between installing something in Windows and precompiled binaries from apt-get, yum, slapt-get, etc.
I can't agree with you that advanced users who need control will choose tools like apt that install precompiled binaries. Some indeed do, but most will continue compiling from source themselves.
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