Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lubutu 5203 days ago
On the other hand, being able to install software so easily with package management is a huge benefit of distributions. Perhaps the solution is to create a new package management system for a desktop distribution. A system which ensures that when upgrading an application only its personal namespace (libraries etc) changes, while other applications remain untouched. Libraries are second-class citizens, almost. That way we get the benefits of packages and libraries, but each application is logically isolated from changes to any others.

I very much agree with the idea of a slow-moving core, though. That's how I've tended to use Debian: a stable foundation upon which I can install less stable higher-level software (the things I actually interact with). Of course, this doesn't address the distro fragmentation problem Ingo is talking about.
1 comments
mgkimsal 5203 days ago
Couple other ideas:

Optionally bundling specific versions of libs (or compiling in statically), and placing in user's home directory, setting path to look there first (maybe that's what you're saying exactly?)

Stop using the same tool for updating userland apps and system core specific stuff. Same app for updating "/bin/ls" and for "audacity" is, imo, at the core of the brokenness. These are different types of apps with different areas of responsibility, but we lump them all together in one tool and process.

link
harshreality 5203 days ago
They need to be lumped together into one update process. The package manager for each needs to be aware of the other so it can resolve incompatibilities and not overwrite files it shouldn't. Joe User is not going to run two different package managers to keep up with security updates. What you consider to be userland apps may be core system stuff to someone else. Package dependency graphs are not simple. Sometimes there are even loops, depending on what parameters you pass to ./configure

You can use one tool and still separate different sorts of packages into different areas of responsibility. A few distros do that, or at least are capable of it. Arch has AUR. Gentoo has a bunch of 3rd party overlays.

link