Vadi
December 19th, 2008, 11:53 PM
I thought PackageKit was the solution to one of the big problems in Linux - different package formats.
Turns out, I was wrong. It's nothing more but a GUI for all those different package formats. And no, it won't allow you to use them - if your system was .deb based before, it'll still be, if it was .rpm based, it'll still be. The only thing it adds is that people on a .rpm and .deb based system will have the same GUI.
And is this GUI even any good? Not when I tried it (just did on a fully updated Fedora 10). The application add/remove was done in a similar fashion to Ubuntu's Add/Remove (gnome-app-install) plus some obvious usability issues, like not being able to search in a category.
Personally, I'm horribly disappointed by this. It also claims "PackageKit is a system designed to make installing and updating software on your computer easier." - maybe it was hard on other distros, but on Ubuntu, I'd say the upgrading interface isn't exactly a problem (yes, interface, because packagekit won't fix your wireless after an upgrade).
So really, even if packagekit does manage to accomplish it's goal - provide 1 gui - it's solved a "not really pressing" problem.
Talk about disappointment :mad:
(note: I thought for some reason that packagekit provided a feature to pause installation/upgrades for shutdownn and resume them at boot. However even after patiently reading the whole faq, I didn't find a single notice about it. Oh well, not like this is a big issue / bonus anyway)
edit: to enlighten yourself, see http://www.packagekit.org/pk-intro.html and http://www.packagekit.org/pk-faq.html.
Turns out, I was wrong. It's nothing more but a GUI for all those different package formats. And no, it won't allow you to use them - if your system was .deb based before, it'll still be, if it was .rpm based, it'll still be. The only thing it adds is that people on a .rpm and .deb based system will have the same GUI.
And is this GUI even any good? Not when I tried it (just did on a fully updated Fedora 10). The application add/remove was done in a similar fashion to Ubuntu's Add/Remove (gnome-app-install) plus some obvious usability issues, like not being able to search in a category.
Personally, I'm horribly disappointed by this. It also claims "PackageKit is a system designed to make installing and updating software on your computer easier." - maybe it was hard on other distros, but on Ubuntu, I'd say the upgrading interface isn't exactly a problem (yes, interface, because packagekit won't fix your wireless after an upgrade).
So really, even if packagekit does manage to accomplish it's goal - provide 1 gui - it's solved a "not really pressing" problem.
Talk about disappointment :mad:
(note: I thought for some reason that packagekit provided a feature to pause installation/upgrades for shutdownn and resume them at boot. However even after patiently reading the whole faq, I didn't find a single notice about it. Oh well, not like this is a big issue / bonus anyway)
edit: to enlighten yourself, see http://www.packagekit.org/pk-intro.html and http://www.packagekit.org/pk-faq.html.