[SOLVED] some sources say to stop using aptitude - why?

So for probably 5 to 7 years now, i'm completely accustomed to using aptitude, but lately i've repeatedly seen sources say to not use it anymore in favor of strict apt (apt being the apt-get wrapper).

What I have not found is the "why" to this recommendation.

Anyone have some direction or comment?

I think mostly because the bulk of the development is now going into the APT suite (and the apt command in particular) and not into the aptitude package. The last aptitude release was 3 years ago.

However, it's horses for courses. If you're completely accustomed to aptitude then there's no problem continuing to use it.

Originally Posted by hydrurga I think mostly because the bulk of the development is now going into the APT suite (and the apt command in particular) and not into the aptitude package. The last aptitude release was 3 years ago. However, it's horses for courses. If you're completely accustomed to aptitude then there's no problem continuing to use it.

Ehh. looks like it is time to provide some more "useful nuance" to your post :P Aptitude is separate project from apt and friends and is still in active development, unless something changed in last few months. For example debian testing has newer version than debian stable and there is even newer version in unstable. And all those are newer versions than Wikipedia shows, in case that you've pulled that 3 years old thing from there. Anyway, more about original question. Those sources started to show up because aptitude is not any more recommended tool for upgrades of debian versions, like from 8 ( Jessie ) to 9 ( Stretch ). Reason for that is that aptitudes advanced algorithms are both blessing and bane. If you are upgrading one, 20, 40 packages, aptitude is all great. If you are solving some nasty dependency problem, aptitude is great. For any advanced search of packages, there is nothing better than aptitude. There is simply no alternative to extremely useful aptitude why and aptitude why-not. But, when it comes to upgrading distro to new version, aptitude faced with so many packages kind of locks itself out in those advanced algorithms and calculations.

tl;dr It is great tool to use for everyday care of updates, upgrades and searches. But do not use it for distro upgrades to new versions.

Originally Posted by dejank Ehh. looks like it is time to provide some more "useful nuance" to your post :P Aptitude is separate project from apt and friends and is still in active development, unless something changed in last few months. For example debian testing has newer version than debian stable and there is even newer version in unstable. And all those are newer versions than Wikipedia shows, in case that you've pulled that 3 years old thing from there. Anyway, more about original question. Those sources started to show up because aptitude is not any more recommended tool for upgrades of debian versions, like from 8 ( Jessie ) to 9 ( Stretch ). Reason for that is that aptitudes advanced algorithms are both blessing and bane. If you are upgrading one, 20, 40 packages, aptitude is all great. If you are solving some nasty dependency problem, aptitude is great. For any advanced search of packages, there is nothing better than aptitude. There is simply no alternative to extremely useful aptitude why and aptitude why-not. But, when it comes to upgrading distro to new version, aptitude faced with so many packages kind of locks itself out in those advanced algorithms and calculations. tl;dr It is great tool to use for everyday care of updates, upgrades and searches. But do not use it for distro upgrades to new versions.

Stalker. :P

Mea culpa on the date. I had read a discussion a while ago on the majority of the development now being on APT (which I know is a separate project from aptitude - I am referring to development here as being from the overall pool of development work). I saw the dates and they tied in with that discussion, incorrectly as it turns out.

I agree that aptitude has a very powerful search capability, and a superior conflict resolution algorithm, but I think, from what I have seen anyway, that there has been a general push to concentrate on APT-provided tools. It causes too much confusion to have apt, apt-get (and the other apt- commands) and aptitude, and the emphasis of development these days appears to be on building apt to be the generic all-encompassing command. And I welcome that, despite personally still using apt-get etc. as I'm used to them.

Thanks for the info on aptitude's unsuitability for distro version upgrades - I was unaware of that.