What next?

[chasd at silveroaks.com]

>>> BTW., how does osx do installs (just bringing up the meta-file
>>> installer thingy again. Feel free not to answer)?
>>
>> their package system, umm, err, sucks.

As an OS X user since Server 1.0, I feel the need to step out of the 
lurker shadow.
OS X does not _have_ a package management system.
One of its greatest weaknesses IMHO.

> 99.9% of users seem to disagree with you, judging by how often "Linux
> should use appfolders like Macs do" is heard on various forums and 
> mailing
> lists.

Installing applications is easy on OS X, by design. One of the trade 
offs is there are many apps that could share libraries but don't. Most 
are statically linked ( except for OS-provided frameworks ). Some 
people bitch about high RAM usage in Fedora, I think OS X is worse.

> So no one uses fink anymore to get applications?  I guess i should go
> tell them to close the project down.

Fink is a third-party application that fills a void in the base OS. It 
is not included in the OS, like rpm. It can't install _any_ 
application, only those it knows about.

There is no way on OS X to ask the system what is the version of app 
foo, or ask it if app foo is even installed. You could look in the 
"Applications" Directory, but apps don't have to live there, so you 
can't be sure. From a single user perspective that may not be a big 
issue. As a system admin, that is a pain. Keeping users from installing 
random applications can be a _good_ thing.

The a OS X .pkg format an installer depend on frail scripts to 
accomplish many things rpm does in an enforced, consistent way.
And it uses a freakish .bom format as storage. OK, maybe the storage 
format isn't a big problem.

There was talk on the Darwin devel list about adding a package 
management system, but inaction is the decision. It is a hard problem 
to solve. The application installation/management needs of a 
single-user desktop are almost opposite of a server, or a 
company-managed desktop.

As for ease of use, users here are experienced in both OS X and 
Winders. Since we use Fedora too, when I show anyone "sudo yum update 
foo," they say, "That's it? It's that easy?"

You can look to OS X for ease-of-use with installers, but it isn't as 
good as rpm/dpkg/ports in many ways, and some OS X users suffer because 
of that.

At least I do.

Charles Dostale
System Admin - Silver Oaks Communications
http://www.silveroaks.com/
824 17th Street, Moline  IL  61265