RPMS? (was Re: [TriLUG] What's the Fairest Distro of All?)

[Tanner Lovelace]

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 15:17:49 -0500, Marc M <linuxr at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) Can I just use any Fedora Core 3 packages I find for RHEL/CentOS 4?
> 
> >>rpms are rpms, i havent used centos, doesn't it use rpms?  You
> should be fine unless you have problems with a specific package or
> something.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONONO!!!!

RPMS are *NOT* RPMS.  RPM is a package format.  You still have to 
match up RPMS with specific distributions.  That's like thinking that
a binary tarball will work on all distributions because all distributions
support tar.  It doesn't work that way!

Now, people will probably speak up and say, well, Debian can do 
it with .debs why can't rpm?  The reason most debian based distributions
can use debian .debs is that most of them track one of the standard
debian distributions.  But, just because it's a .deb doesn't make it
any more special.  Try using a .deb from unstable on stable.  It's
a nightmare.  That's why they have the entire backports thing setup.
Try using a .deb from Ubuntu on Sarge.  It might work, but then
again it might not.

If you want your packages to work with your distribution, you must
choose packages made for your distribution.  That's the simple
facts.

Now, an interesting sidenote here is that this is actually one
area where source based distributions have a huge advantage.
By definition, something built for source is built for your distribution
so source based distributions don't have to worry about a lot
of these problems.  (That's not to say they don't have other problems,
but that's beside the point.)

Cheers,
Tanner

-- 
Tanner Lovelace
clubjuggler at gmail dot com
http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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(fieldless) In fess two roundels in pale, a billet fesswise and an
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