Here is my deal; I want an os that load ANY tar. Deb. Tgz. With as little configuration not out of the box. I need an os that can work all-the-way across all software centers regardless of kde unity gnome xfce arch and such. I have no idea of its possible but there are apps in each center I want to explore and REALLY want to get to know ALL the variants without installing diff oses everytime I hit a wall or want to try something new. Deepin looks good, zorin seems limited but works with most of my interests however, ubuntu has the biggest library of apps... android is cool because I use my phone alot but Andromium Beta looks like I can run it on an arm device OR a HDD with low resources but things like tethering apps or large resource are not available. Remember I'm a noob like no other. Thank everyone for input and, a reversal, I don't want to virtualize or run multi oses- even kali would be an option if I could surf all software centers. Again thanks!!

You won't get it exactly. Many of the major distro's offer ways to use other package management systems. They are not universal as such. There are moves afoot to get a standardized sort of package. Things like snap packages are claiming to be universal and may at some time take over software centers. Right now there are only a few snap packages. Many of the linux programs are still quite old or rely on older parts of linux to work. QT tried to bridge that gap too as well as my favorite failure, java. Write once, run everywhere was it's claim.

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In addition there is a utility called alien that can convert between deb, rpm, slp, stampede and slackware tgz formats.

In a nutshell "software centers" are GUI front ends for that particular distributions package management system. An application package contains the binary program and instructions on where to install its various components like man pages, libraries, configuration files etc. The packages are stored on various servers and are called repositories. Although the distributions you posted are based upon debian or Ubuntu they are really not the same in terms of kernel, libraries etc. Using a repository other then the one for that particular distribution could/will break it.

The three oldest Linux Distro's that are still supported are Slackware, Debian and Red Hat.
Most other distributions are derived from one of the 2.

The easiest way to determine the basis of a distribution is the type of package management it uses.

For example rpm packages characterize Red Hat based systems and .deb packages characterize Debian based systems. Debian is the foundation of more distro's than RH.

Slackware has it's own tools but unlike RPM and Debian systems does not do dependency resolution.
There are distribution that are unique unto themselves like Gentoo and Arch Linux.

Mageia is a fork of Mandriva. Not a respin like the direct decendants of Mandrake.

Since you are new to Linux try Linux Mint and get well aquanted with the package management system and go from there.

Later you could always custom build LFS in the future which may be more of what you want.

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I have used Slackware's utility, rpm2tgz, to convert RPMs to Slackware's *.tgz format. It worked quite nicely.

There's also a deb2tgz at Slackbuilds.

I don't think that rpm2tgz and deb2tgz are what OP is looking for.

Frankly, I don't think that what OP is looking for, which seems to be a cross-platform package manager for multiple package formats from multiple repos from multiple distros, exists. The closest thing OP is likely to find is compiling from sources, which is really as cross-platform as it gets.

Basically, what you want to do is neither possible not desirable. It's a classic example of the saying "Linux is not Windows".

Unlike Windows programs, which come with their all the necessary library (.dll) files, Linux programs share their (.so) files. That's why a Linux installation medium can offer a large bundle of software and still be a fraction of the size of the Windows installation files.

There is no guarantee, however, that different distros will use the same names for the libraries. With the Debian family (.deb), they usually do, but .rpm packaging is used by many different distros. When the SUSE package manager checks that you have the dependencies for an rpm you got from Fedora, it may fail to find them because SUSE knows them under another name. The same may occur if you used alien to convert a deb to an rpm and tried that. Even if the dependency has the same name, the version may be different. You can get round such problems, but it's often complicated.

That's one reason why we always say that you should get your software from your distro's repository. If it's not there, get the source code and compile it yourself. The other reason is that your distro's programs will be patched when necessary with bug and security fixes. If you collect your own software, Windows-style, then you are responsible for maintaining it — you've abandoned one of the great advantages of using Linux.

Most distros have enough software to keep anyone happy, but if you must have a huge selection, get Debian. That has the largest repository and they joke that "if we don't have it, it either isn't worth having or doesn't even exist."

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Thanks Michaelk, I was aware of the kernel compatibility issue but didn't understand the full scope of it. Now everything makes sense. Just stick to a kernel and stop trying to break my os to use a single app.

DavidMcCann, another issue I couldn't place till you shed light on it- I find a package from a diff platform and it either gives an error or asks for a different version. I WILL go for debian and just learn to compile from sources- doing research first, ofcourse. So.. Thank you.

Debian is stable and the documentation is good. Enjoy and read up:-

https://www.debian.org/

https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/d...gtools.en.html

https://debian-handbook.info/

Fatbrd12:

Tho you may not be able to remove the older version of a pkg you should be able to install a newer version. A pkg should be specific to it's host.

ie debian uses .deb pkg's and RH uses .rpm pkg's.

The problem with compiling from src is that those programs don't get updated:-
It's been said here that if you can't apt-get it it's not worth having.


Where you able to try or install Debian?