[olpc-software] No package manager?

[Christopher Blizzard]

Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> I think we're talking at crossed purposes here. When saying we don't want
> to use a traditional packaging tool such as APT / RPM, it is not because
> we don't care about dependancies / sharing between apps (although it could
> well be less important in the context of OLPC, that is a side issue). The
> primary driving force behind this idea is an overall desire to ensure that
> tasks encountered in day-to-day usage are straightforward, robust & safe
> to perform. Packaging tools such RPM / APT do not neccessarily provide the
> ideal balance for those factors in the context of a desktop where at least
> some portion of users must be expected to have zero-UNIX experiance.
> 

I think that this is the most important paragraph in this mail, because 
it touches on what we're really talking about here: that the design and 
experience has to come first, and figuring out how we implement it comes 
second.  It could be rpm, or dpkg, or 0install, or something we write 
ourselves; it doesn't matter.  As long as we are able to enable a 
specific user experience that allows schools to publish, kids to share 
and makes machines bullet proof with an elegant way to unscrew busted 
apps that a kid has gone and played with, I'd be pretty happy.

--Chris