Installing software the Debian way

Setting the Example

The dpkg and apt-get combination is more than a dozen years old. In some ways, it is starting to show its age, with lingering options that few, if any, modern users want and with improvements tending to go into related utilities rather than dpkg or apt-get. The result is a set of tools that is sometimes cumbersome and takes some getting used to.

The dpkg/apt-get combination remains powerful if you take the time to learn it. Still, it is hardly surprising that other package systems have also streamlined their installation processes. Next month, I'll look at how the Red Hat package system borrowed from Debian in the creation of yum – its equivalent of apt-get.

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