[SATLUG] Linux pkg dependency... what is it actually

[Sean Carolan]

> A friend of mine asked me why Linux distros have dependency issues but
> M$-Windows doesn't??

On Windows, drivers and supporting files are usually included along
with any new software or hardware, but sometimes there are still
dependency issues.

For example, I recently tried to install a new sound card on a Windows
box.  I naively assumed that Windows XP would have a basic PCI sound
card driver so I gave the driver disk to my 2 year old daughter to
play with.  Well, after getting the sound card installed I ended up
having to dig around in her toy box to get that driver disk because
Windows XP didn't come with a soundcard driver!

You could also try installing some piece of software that requires the
.NET architecture.  If you don't have .NET installed - then that is a
dependency issue.  You have to manually hunt down the .NET installer,
download and install it first before you can use your software.  Some
softwares will do this automatically for you.  So Windows does
sometimes have dependency issues.

Missing or broken dependencies used to be a huge problem on the Linux
side.  Red Hat created RPM as an easy way to install pre-compiled
software on your system.  But you'd still run into trouble when
package A needs package B to install, and B needs C, and C has to be
compiled from scratch, etc. etc.  I believe Debian was the first
distribution to solve this problem with the apt package management
system.  On a Debian or Ubuntu box you just run 'apt-get install
packageX', and apt works out all the dependencies, downloads them and
installs from the repo server.  With Fedora systems a similar tool
called yum is included.  On Gentoo, all the dependencies are built
from source.  There are other package management systems out there,
but the basic idea is the same.

One thing you won't find in the Windows world is a giant repository of
free software that you can grab and install anytime you want, with a
few easy commands.  For example, when I wanted an astronomy program
all I had to do was "yum install stellarium" and in less than a minute
it was installed and running.

> I was pretty dumb-struck by the question cos I never actually gave it
> much thought.... so can any one please help me out
>
> Thanks in advance
> Emon
>
>
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