On Tue, 18 Dec 2007, Samir M. Nassar wrote: > So why can't we use deb or rpm to install these packages? For the most > part because a gentoo system wouldn't know what you installed. I read your whole message but I just have a question about the paragraph above. What does it mean for Gentoo to "know" what is installed? I'm not picking on your choice of wording, I'm trying to understand where in the system that information is recorded and used. I can direct my path through the right directories (e.g., /usr/local/bin) and I should find everything, even on Gentoo -- in that sense I know what is there. Is the problem you refer to that Gentoo's own installer system wouldn't know that dependencies are already taken care of and it would force me to reinstall things that are alaredy installed because it doesn't see them? Mike