Three releases with very different package managers.

This week saw the release of three very different distributions, two of them being Linux distribution and the third being a BSD. Yes I am talking about Frugalware, PC-BSD and Foresight Linux.

The reason I call them different is because none of the above implements a widely used package management system.

1. PC-BSD. This is basically a rip-off and easier to install version of the highly stable and ultra fast FreeBSD (6.3) operating system. The FreeBSD devs claim that FreeBSD 7.0 is faster than latest Linux kernel versions. However, FreeBSD is not so simple and easy to setup, enters PC-BSD and makes FreeBSD as simple as a windows install. The default desktop is very much like a modern KDE based Linux desktop, a la OpenSUSE or PCLinuxOS. The main feature of PC-BSD is its software installer, the Push-Button Installer (PBI). PBI is a GUI wizard that lets users download from PBI directory and install a wide range of available applications in a self-extracting and self-installing format. A software install through PBI is identical to a software install in Windows XP. Windows users will find it very intutive and easy to use. The PBI directory contains a huge list of applications and I was amazed to find an installer for MSN Messenger 7. Again removing PBI applications is as simple as "Start Menu > Settings > System Administration > Remove Programs (PBIs)". As PC-BSD is based on FreeBSD so it also supports the FreeBSD way of installing packages through FreeBSD Ports and pkg-add utility.
   
2. Frugalware is a marriage between the simplicity of Slackware, "packman" package manager from Arch Linux and user friendliness. Pacman is a very fast and lightweight package management tool that makes applications install and keeping them updated as easy as a child's play. Pacman allows for installing binary packages as well as building tha packages from source files. Frugalware further improvises on this great tool and uses Pacman-G2. It is a fork of the not-yet-released cvs version of the complete rewrite of pacman. It provides a library interface to create real front-ends (not just wrappers) to this great package management tool. Some features that pacman-g2 has over pacman: (September 2007)
1. It provides C#, Java, Perl and Python bindings for libpacman.
2. libpacman provides a configuration file parser (for pacman-g2.conf).
3. It provides support for subpackages, ie. creating more than one binary package using a single build script.
4. Localized manpages.
5. Stable library API
3. Foresight Linux. Finally, here we have a release which uses a highly innovative approach to package management. It features the Conary Package Manager. Lets take a imaginary scenario where we install the latest version of Flash player in Firefox and OOPS!! the flash videos stop working or Firefox starts crashing frequently, whereas with the previous version it was working perfectly. What do we do ? Under normal Linuxes we uninstall Flash and then search for previous version on net ( usually the repositories have only a single version and that is buggy in our case) and then install it. Fare enough. However, I am a developer and am used to of this Faux Paux in application development when the latest version of a source file is buggy, then we simply extract the previous working version from svn and work on it. Conary takes its uniqueness from this concept.
   In our above case Conary will simply rollback to the previous working version of Flash. Now thats not only simple and easy but also much more logical. This gives a feeling that if with the latest update anything goes wrong, I can simply switch back to a previous working state. Conary is definitely the most technologically advanced package manager today.
   

I was busy entire weekend downloading and trying Frugalware and PC-BSD. Foresight Linux comes as a huge DVD so it is still downloading and I'll try it this weekend.


NOTE::
I did encounter some problems both in PC-BSD and Frugalware, but nothing that a little web search could not resolve. My major problem was my wife who was very upset with me sitting in front of my desktop on a Saturday, hence, I got very limited time with PC-BSD on Sunday.
I might write about my experience with both depending upon my wife's mood :).