[zamalek]

> unusable by hijacking it's name space

That's not what was exactly written but is illuminating none-the-less (the original quote only says "name," which is a very different thing to "namespace"). Why do package managers have a single namespace to begin with? I should be able to install packages regardless of name conflicts, by using a namespace, e.g.

    $> apt-get install mdm
    Found org.debian.mdm and com.linuxmint.mdm.
    $> apt-get install com.linuxmint.mdm
    $> apt-get install org.debian.mdm

There's obviously the chance for a file system conflict, but the package manager should be able to keep track of that for you and abort if it would occur (or allow you to install it to a different prefix).

It's incredibly naive to believe that name conflicts would never occur, especially with the 3-letter acronyms/contractions that are so prevalent in Unix. I'd pin the blame this specific problem squarely on Debian, it shouldn't be happening in the first place.