RPM compression format

[Michael Wiktowy]

Hi,

I just read http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/static/suse11.html where is
mentions that OpenSuSe 11 went with a different compression algorithm
for their rpms (LZMA instead of bz2) and have a few questions:

1) While every distro seems to be coming together on a package
management GUI (PackageKit), does this represent a splintering of
package formats? or is rpm compression algorithm agnostic? Is there
any hope that the various rpm development will start pulling in the
same direction?

2) LZMA appears to have some good characteristics for installation
rpms (tighter compression, 50% decompression time ... at least as
implemented by 7zip ref:
http://www.maximumcompression.com/data/summary_mf4.php ). Is Fedora
planing to follow this switch (or has it already and not advertised it
as a prominent feature) or are there other considerations preventing
that (patent issues?, not suitable for delta rpms?, 200% compression
time)?

/Mike