<p>Packaging systems:<br />
   rpm, rpm5,  deb/dpkg,  ebuild,  compressed files (archlinux),  pisi,  .tgz (tar.gz file)  slackware/vector linux,  .tlz (Vector Linux)</p>
<p>Package managers:<br />
   Program		Distro(s)	website		notes<br />
   apt 		debian <br />
   conary		Foresight Liux/rPath company 	handles distributed repositories, commit/rollback<br />
   entropy		Sabayon				consists of Equo client (textual), Sulfur client (graphical) <br />
   kpackagekit	kubuntu				uses policykit (any problems if booted computer from a live cd and mounted and chroot'd?)<br />
   opkg		openmoko			lightweight; based on ipkg<br />
   pacman		archlinux<br />
   pirut		fedora				it calls yum so it's just a gui wrapper? not sure how widely used...?<br />
   pisi		pardus (Turkish distro)		was based on gentoo. as far as I can tell it now uses its own pkg format<br />
   poldek		Fedora				RPM<br />
   portage		gentoo				ebuilds,<br />
   slapt		slackware			tgz<br />
   slapt		vectorlinux			tlz;<br />
   smart		UnityLinux			RPM5<br />
   synaptic	ubuntu				DEB; graphical frontend to apt<br />
   urpmi		mandriva			RPM<br />
   yum		redhat/fedora			RPM<br />
   zypper		opensuse			RPM</p>
<p>Other useful links:<br />
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_package_management_systems<br />
   https://www.packagekit.org/pk-matrix.html</p>
<p>apt - https://wiki.debian.org/Apt<br />
   conary - https://wiki.rpath.com/wiki/Conary<br />
   entropy - https://wiki.sabayon.org/index.php?title=En:Entropy<br />
   kpackagekit - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPackageKit, https://www.packagekit.org<br />
   opkg - https://code.google.com/p/opkg/<br />
   pacman - https://www.archlinux.org/pacman/<br />
   pirut - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F8_User_Guide_-_Managing_Software_with_Pirut<br />
   pisi - https://en.pardus-wiki.org/Making_Pisi_Packages<br />
   poldek - https://poldek.pld-linux.org/<br />
   portage - https://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=2&amp;chap=1<br />
   slapt - https://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/docs/vl58/manuals/vl5_slaptget_en.html<br />
   smart - https://niemeyer.net/smart<br />
   synaptic - https://www.nongnu.org/synaptic/ <br />
   urpmi - https://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Tools/urpmi<br />
   yum - https://yum.baseurl.org/<br />
   zypper - https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Zypper<br />
</p>
<p>Concerns:<br />
   1) package burn out - will it get to the point where only either large distros or commercial distros have large repos due to the effort involved?<br />
   2) I've lost track of the number of times i've heard from people  'our distro doesn't have enough manpower to package ...'<br />
   wouldn't it be helpful to not have to use our limited manpower in building redundant packages?<br />
   3) in 10 (or less) years when non-technical people take over at Redhat/Ubuntu/other large distro,  will they use the package system as a club to beat the other distros with? I'm not sure how, but where money is involved, you can feel assured it _will_ happen.<br />
   4) current state of packaging systems in linux is like sound systems were 10 yrs ago.<br />
   remember esd vs arts vs vs ...? each desktop environment had its own system.  sound in linux was painful and a complete joke.  it still has a ways to go but it's _SO_ much better now that it was.  does anyone want to go back to that?<br />
   pulseaudio isn't perfect but it's so much better than what we had before.  and it's ONE system!<br />
   can you image if printing and authentication were like the packaging systems?   image if everyone had their own printing system instead of CUPs?   imagine if there was no pam.d?<br />
   5) I believe packaging systems are NOT about choice. the exact opposite. it's about vendor lockin and NIH. <br />
   (we'll do it OUR way because we can do it better or the 'proper' way.  &quot;so-and-so does blah, which is<br />
   completely stupid&quot;)<br />
   choice is being able to write a script in php,perl,python,bash,csh,... on the SAME system. <br />
   that's choice <br />
   because I can CHOOSE.  If I have a debian box I can't choose to use RPM or ebuilds, same for those other systems.<br />
   of the systems I've used: deb,  rpm, rpm5, portage,  (and tarballs if you count linuxfromscratch)<br />
   and the managers I've used: yum, urpmi, smart, kpackagekit, synaptic, apt-get, emerge<br />
   each system has little features the others don't. but there is nothing that one system has that couldn't be added to the others. </p>