18000+ Packages?

[ihavenoname]

I was on synaptic looking for something new to try (yes, I was bored and I happen to enjoy trying out new applications), when I noticed something, According to synaptic there are over 18000 packages in the Ubuntu repos, that is ALOT! Fedora Core (this is one of the main problems I have with Fedora) has around 12000 packages (if u include all of the available repos which are not always compatabile with each other). Many of those packages are duplicates. I have not really found too many duplicates in the Ubuntu repos (just with the kernel versions) am I just not seeing them or what? The 18000 packages, does that include the ppc packages as well? What about duplicates?

[tribaal]

Well do you count universe/multiverse packages as well or only the core ubuntu-supported packages? :)

- trib'

[Lord Illidan]

There are some duplicates, as well as some deprecated packages. But it is a great selection.

[curuxz]

Im sure I read somewhere that we have the biggest and most upto date software repo's in the linux world. Cant remember where tho, it never surpises me how many packages there are, BUT you always end up needing to install extra repos ;) sods law eh

[Kvark]

It's not like there are 18k programs to choose from on Ubuntu. Many packages are add-on modules for some program. Open Office, Emacs and Apache are examples of programs have have many optional add-on packages. Many games have a -data and a -sound package. Another huge group of packages are libraries that work under the hood and various programs depend on.

I wonder how many of those packages are actual programs...

[Sheinar]

Im sure I read somewhere that we have the biggest and most upto date software repo's in the linux world.
I don't know about the biggest, but Ubuntu definitely doesn't have the most up to date software repo's.

[Engnome]

I don't know about the biggest, but Ubuntu definitely doesn't have the most up to date software repo's.

So mind telling us what distro has bigger/biggest repo's?

[Sheinar]

So mind telling us what distro has bigger/biggest repo's?
Read what I said. I never said there were bigger repo's than Ubuntu's, because I honestly don't know.

[givré]

but Ubuntu definitely doesn't have the most up to date software repo's.
And what's about the most up to date :rolleyes:

[jdong]

Well, Ubuntu has, in my opinion, the optimal blend of large selection, package quality, and up-to-dateness.

Top competitors include Gentoo Portage (up-to-dateness especially with ~x86, but stable and unstable branches have suffered QA issues extensively. I would not rate Portage's packages as Enterprise-Ready (tm) as Ubuntu's repositories) and FreeBSD Ports (up-to-dateness and quality both excellent, though slightly more difficult to maintain and not as great a selection as Ubuntu)

[ihavenoname]

It's not like there are 18k programs to choose from on Ubuntu. Many packages are add-on modules for some program. Open Office, Emacs and Apache are examples of programs have have many optional add-on packages. Many games have a -data and a -sound package. Another huge group of packages are libraries that work under the hood and various programs depend on.

I wonder how many of those packages are actual programs...
Thats true for all of the Distros' repos so if your going to compare them it would work the same way. Although some distros favor a more modular approach then otheres. Still from my experience I have always found the program I wanted either in the repos or easily installable either from a website (alien helps alot as well) Usually thou the programs have been in the repos.

[disturbed1]

Debian has long boasted having the most packages available. Not saying it's true, but if you've ever loaded synaptic in Fedora not using 3rd party repos, then take a look at a Debian repo there's a vast difference. Ubuntu base only uses a small subset of debian, but once you enable universe and multiverse you gain ~75% of the debian world.

Gentoo has a great selection of apps (UT and Doom too ;) ), but yes, the QA is a little lacking. I had better luck compiling the source myself rather than using the ebuilds. But for a source based distro I like Vector (based on Slackware) much better. Everything just seems to compile out of the box. For binary distros I don't think anyone can compare with anything based on Debian.

[ihavenoname]

Debian has long boasted having the most packages available. Not saying it's true, but if you've ever loaded synaptic in Fedora not using 3rd party repos, then take a look at a Debian repo there's a vast difference. Ubuntu base only uses a small subset of debian, but once you enable universe and multiverse you gain ~75% of the debian world.

Gentoo has a great selection of apps (UT and Doom too ;) ), but yes, the QA is a little lacking. I had better luck compiling the source myself rather than using the ebuilds. But for a source based distro I like Vector (based on Slackware) much better. Everything just seems to compile out of the box. For binary distros I don't think anyone can compare with anything based on Debian.
Vector is a source based distro? I thought it was tar.gz like slackware...it uses slaptget, but I could be wrong.

[disturbed1]

It's not source based, but I treat it that way :D There aren't that many slackware package repos, those that do exist, I haven't had the best of luck with.

[ihavenoname]

It's not source based, but I treat it that way :D There aren't that many slackware package repos, those that do exist, I haven't had the best of luck with.
ah! that makes sense

[3rdalbum]

I heard that the reason why Debian has so many packages compared to other distros is because many of them are split up into lots of different parts. But I can honestly say that Ubuntu's package selection is still quite impressive. Imagine the processor time required to compile all those packages for x86, x86-64, PPC, and Sparc!

[curuxz]

But at the end of the day Debian packages have been known to work in Ubuntu and vis versa i believe so its kind of link saying our parents have a bigger record collection than us, it does not stop us borowing theirs or make their tastes in music better ;)