On Tue, 18 Dec 2007, Isaac Atilano wrote: > On Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:24:26 -0600 (CST), "Mike Miller" > <mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> said: > >> Why can't I use four different package systems on the same installation >> of one distro? The reason isn't philosophical -- there is either a >> technical reason why I can't do it, or I can do it. The distro might >> come with only one package management program, but they are all freely >> available so I ought to be able to compile them all and use them all, >> if I want to. > > > The reason is one of practicality and it's that you can only use a > package management system that supports the package format you want to > use. > > For practical reasons, you can't, to a large extend, use different > package formats especially when you're dealing with package > dependencies. > > The reason I say "practical" is because technically, you can use > different package formats as song as you configure the software so that > dependencies are satisfied, and, for scalability, invent another piece > of software that can manage those dependencies based on the two > different package formats. I'm guessing that it would be possible to write a package management program would allow you to use three or four standard package formats and manage all the dependencies, etc. Mike