A compiled distribution always has to choose into how many packages a single source package is split. Like *-dev, seperate gtk, qt,kde,gnome frontends, backends, ...
where
many packages from one source package means (e.g. Debian)
- more confusion for the enduser (debian users generally know less about what which packages does then say gentoo users because there simply are so many packages with similar names. You get dizzy from looking at it.
- it's very difficult to have a good overview of all the packages on your system
That is actually the only reason why i don't use debian/ubuntu.
and
few packages means (e.g. archlinux not sure about that)
- less flexibility
- more disk space
- more unneeded dependencies
But it needn't be like that.
The package manager should let you
work with and install source packages (hence forth refered to as packages) and not what debian calles packages (hence forth refered to as components (of a package)). This would just install you the standard components. And if you need the extra flexibility you could still have the possibility to choose or unchoose certain components of the package by configuring that package.
This approach would noticeably improve the overview and understanding of your packages while maintaining all the flexibility.
I'm in search of such a package manager/distro. Yet google has let me down on this one. Is there really no such package manager? Why not?
note: I won't implement this but it wouldn't to invasive a change to most distros. The package system would not be affected at all, only the way the package manager would store information about which packages are installed and the UI
