On 09/01/18 13:28, David T-G wrote:
Hi, all --
What's the preferred/right/best/easiest way to install & update software on my Leap system? I grew up on YaST (and then YaST2), but I keep seeing folks using zypper, and there are even occasional comments about apt. My goal is simply to be able to find the most software the most easily and reliably, since it's already challenging enough to know which RPM repositories and archives to search...
Ouf! Not a simple question and I sense a can of worms about to be unleashed on the mailing lists... :-/ Essentially there is NO universally preferred, right or best option. Easiest is something that could perhaps be debated with some factual back-up, but it's all down to the individual. I know many on here are likely to chime in recommending zypper but different people have different needs and find the solution that suits them best. I started on SuSE 8.2 prior to zypper being a thing. I got used to the rather quirky and esoteric YaST Software Management interface and have stuck with it. It could certainly do with improvement as it hasn't changed much over the years, although I'm rather wary that most attempts in recent times of 'improving' such things often seem to be nothing more than simplification and dumbing down by removing niche features, to the benefit of those who think a clean interface trumps all, and to the detriment of those who like and rely on those niche features. Needless to say, hence, that I'm principally a Plasma user, since I like niche features. Note however that when using openSUSE with XFCE or LXDE as my primary DE, I've always swapped out the GTK YaST interface for the Qt one since the former seemed to have missing features and wasn't so logically arranged for my brain. I could have learnt how to use zypper and part of the reason I haven't is inertia, but also because I didn't get into Linux for want of learning the command line and geeky ways to do things. I chose it partly for the philosophical reasons, partly for the improved security and less all-round annoyances of Windows, partly the desire to free myself from the chains of proprietary hardware/software and the constant need to pay out for new versions and incompatibilities. I chose SuSE (as it was back then) precisely since it had good reviews for having user-friendly features like YaST. And so since I'm so crap at memorising commands (not so much the commands themselves but all the myriad options that each one contains, requiring me to waste time reading the man page every time I want to do something) I prefer the point-and-click interface of YaST. That's just what works best for me. One thing I would say though is that the 'one-click' (quadruple quotes probably needed there since it has never in reality been anything of the sort, just as 'flicker-free' boot has always offered me more of a flicker-frenzy than anything else on any machine I've ever used with openSUSE) software installer is something I avoid. It leads you blindfolded through software installation and I prefer to review whether or not installing one tiny utility is going to pull in 500MB and half of GNOME and from what repos. So I prefer going to the OBS software search front-end, locating the package, then downloading the version with the relevant architecture, copying it to my /usr/src/packages/RPMs/{arch} directory and having that directory set as a local repo in YaST. The potential annoyance there is that sometimes upon selecting the package for installation it advises that you need some other package and you then have to go hunting for that separately, and so on. And now I'll hand over to the zypper crowd to have their say... :) gumb -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org