[conspire] Distro thread (dependency hell ... and not)

[Michael Paoli]

> From: "Rick Moen" <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> Subject: Re: [conspire] Distro thread
> Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2019 01:55:17 -0700

> Quoting Texx (texxgadget at gmail.com):
>
>> RPM packages tend to send me into "dependency hell" loops.  deb
>> packages, for some reason just have their dependencies nailed down
>> better.  I dont know why, it just is.
>>
>> Deb works first time out of the bag and i cant remember the last time
>> i had a dependency problem with deb.
>
> It's not the package tool that makes the difference.  It's policy.

Yep, ... policy (& enforcement!), testing, QA ...
Debian has excellent policy and has quite the thorough
mostly quite automated testing, etc.  That prevents a whole lot of
dependency problems (not or incorrectly or excessively specified by
the package).  Additionally, and a bit distro specific - notably
how many use Debian, compared to others, Debian has a large user base,
also many distros based on Debian (helps somewhat indirectly), but
even Debian itself, many/most do much more customized selections of
exactly what packages they do - and don't - install, as compared to,
e.g. Red Hat.  So I think that also effectively tests package dependency
specifications and provides feedback (bug reports) on that - which also
contributes to helping the overall quality an dependency situation.
Compared to Red Hat - on Red Hat, most users generally do "all" (which
can actually be done on Red Hat - not on Debian), or select (or not)
specific large collections of packages at install time (similar to
Debian's tasksel) ... and on Red Hat, typically not a whole lot of
fine-grained adjustment of add/drop packages after that.  I think
most Debian users do much more selective (de)installation of
specific package - e.g. start with a relatively thin base system,
or that plus some DE, maybe add some server bits or specific
package thereof, and after that, go to town, if/as needed/desired,
on specific application package or whatever, or collections thereof
(Debian Pure Blends), or just pick and choose packages as
needed/desired.  I think typically(/statistically), one sees
a lot less of that on, e.g. Red Hat.  Anyway, much greater diversity
as to what packages are/aren't installed on any given installation of
a distro tends to increase feedback(/bug reports, etc.) on any
distro dependency issues - and tends to not only flush out such
issues, but put more pressure on making better infrastructure and
policy/testing, etc., so such dependency issues don't occur
at all - or are at least vanishingly rare.

Also, in all my years dealing with Debian (I've been using it as my
preferred and primary distro since 1998) I don't think I've ever
hit any dependency issue(s)(/hell) unless I did something
"stupid" with dpkg (which one can do).  It's also much harder
to - especially accidentally, do something "stupid" with
apt/apt-get, and higher-level tools that use the apt
infrastructure.  Oh, and likewise, don't do something stupid
with one's repos (e.g. random crud 3rd party crud).

So, yes, I've even done the (thus far unsupported!) changing of installed
Debian system from 32 bit (i386) to 64 (amd64), with *almost* no issues,
and almost entirely using apt (and friends), and with mostly little
need to resort to having to go all the way down to dpkg:
https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=system:32-bit_to_64-bit