Re: tlug: Debian Distro.

[simon@example.com (Simon Cozens)]

Jack Morgan (lists.tlug):
>I resently installed Storm Linux, which is Debian based. I don't know much
>about Debian and my question is this:     Can I install .rpm's on a Debian
>disto? It seems to me that a lot of packages on the internet are .rpm based?

Debian uses .deb files; I'd say there are at least as many .deb's out
there as there are .rpms. However, if you do want to use .rpms, you have
two choices:
	1) Install the rpm .deb, then you've got RPM. This is *BAD*, because
	the whole point of having a package manager is that you can track
	what's where - and you can't do that if two different databases are
	laying claim to different packages.
	2) Install alien, and use that to convert the .rpms to .debs.
	Better.

You're almost always better off with natively-built .debs, if you can
find them. And gosh, if you can't, it must be something pretty obscure;
Debian's a pretty *big* OS. :)

-- 
About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt
ax.  It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
		-- Edsger Dijkstra
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