Hi Stefan,
Actually I think one of the reasons for the whining is because SuSE said Yast2 in SuSE 8 would have all the features of Yast *and* be much better then the old Yast2.
This did not happen. The important stuff from Yast, things used to keep a system updated in the long run is not included (the possibility to compare/update the rpm's in the update folder on suse's ftp), other settings I mostly change manually in the config files, because I think that gives me more control over the settings.
I trusted Yast better with my config files then with (incompatible?) packages ;-)
YOU only includes a small number of the updates available.
apt-get is no serious replacement because the SuSE rpm's don't have the correct dependencies in some cases. For an example try to have java2 installed and try to apt-get some updates. Won't work. Have to deinstall java2.
What are you saying? If SuSE rpm's don't have correct dependencies, yast could still install it so it would work correctly? i've experienced the opposite quite a few times. And then, would this be a deficiency of apt? Hardly so i think. At least apt would try to figure out how to fulfill the dependencies. Yast can't (or couldn't) and install it anyway, leaving you to clean up the mess it left behind.
We could do these things with the old yast. When I pay for a distribution I like when things work well out of the box (thats the reason I pay for it). If I download something for free I accept that things don't work properly
YOU and the possibility to update/upgrade (SuSE) packages, to me, is an important part of the system. This should work "out of the box" and as faultless as possible. Look at it this way: If this could implemented correctly it would save SuSE a lot of support calls (thus time and money they could spend on other important issues)? From my point of view apt4rpm, at this moment, comes closest in reaching this goal. It's not perfect yet and, like i said in an earlier mail, SuSE could help actively with the development and append it to their (and our) needs.
and sometimes contribute my own time to that project.
good! :-)
/Stefan
stereo, Marcel