[Beowulf] Parallel Development Tools

[Tony Travis]

Robert G. Brown wrote:
> [...]
> If I had my druthers, we (the Linux community) would work towards a
> unified packaging scheme, a nice binary standard, a common /etc layout
> (ideally one that converts a lot of /etc files from flat to xml, since
> flatfiles suck for the specification for slowly varying extensible
> hierarchical data one would like to manage with GUI tools).  Lower the
> barriers between distros, not raise them.  Get it so that one can
> kickstart Debian, use aptitude (with a configuration option set) with
> Fedora.  Get it so that a binary package on one can convert and load on
> the other (dependencies permitting) without library conflicts.  Get it
> so a GUI tool written to manage one could equally well manage the other,
> or ALL others.
> 
> But that just plain makes too much sense for users, and not enough sense
> for corporate heads who ultimately rely on differences to sell their
> products, not similarities.
> 
> Sigh,

Two things: First the 'curses' interface to "aptitude" is optional. I 
use it as a command-line replacement for "apt-get" because, as Tim said, 
Debian now recommend it instead of the older "apt-get". Aptitude is more 
robust ,and better at fixing broken dependencies (I mentioned this in a 
previous thread). Try, for example:

	sudo aptitude install alien

The "alien" command is used to convert or install alien binary packages 
(e.g. rpm's) under Debian. That's how I used to install Sun's Java rpm 
until I switched to Ubuntu and now use the Ubuntu "sun-*" debs directly.

Yes, Debian is 'backward' compatible with rpm :-)

	Tony.
-- 
Dr. A.J.Travis,                     |  mailto:ajt at rri.sari.ac.uk
Rowett Research Institute,          |    http://www.rri.sari.ac.uk/~ajt
Greenburn Road, Bucksburn,          |   phone:+44 (0)1224 712751
Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland, UK.    |     fax:+44 (0)1224 716687