Hello,

according to this paper http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/aptitude.php and noticing that people on this forum use aptitude more often, one could say that aptitude is 'better' than apt-get. It's strange since I see that installation notes from Debian http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/apas04.html suggest to use apt-get.

What's your point? Each tool has it's intended audience and serves them well. I don't think either one is better then the other, but I do believe that both are superior to any rpm-based tool, including Yast. (Yes, I've used Suse and Red Hat before, prior to settling on Debian)

I experienced difficulties with rpm under RH and FC myself. It cannot really treat dependencies. From what I saw from yesterday, aptitude can do exiting things.

If a tool can do the job, then it's good. Period. After that, which of the good tools you use is purely a matter of personal preference.

Anyway, Aptitude is a front end to apt, can make it easier to use in most - but not all - circumstances. My personal preference is Synaptic, easier on the eyes than aptitude.

The point is, you should use one consistently. I think aptitude is the heir apparent to apt-get, so since I recently did a fresh install, I am using aptitude exclusively. I haven't figured out the ncurses ui, but the beauty of it is that I simply use it from the prompt only substituting "aptitude" for "apt-get"

But that is the best part: use F10 for the menu and the keys u, U, g, i and the + and - keys on the numeric keyboard to go around

Aptitude is build on the top of apt-get and has all its features plus many others... check that if you want details: http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/.../msg03138.html
I don't see any reason not to use aptitude actually... it is far superior to apt-get in many ways and save me many times in the past :-)
Hope this helps,
A.

One cool gimmick about aptitude is that it will remove unused packages. This can be quite a help.

I dislike Aptitude very much. I realize that's just my opinion. I use apt and debfoster. Those two tools are all I need to keep my system slim and configured exactly how I want. I arbitrarily purge aptitude if I install a new system, to gain a few extra MBs.

I also use debfoster, however during my last installation, I got the message that debfoster is obsolete and that I should use aptitude...

I don't think it's so much of a matter of which is better. If anything, I think it's good that we have all of these options available since they all seem to have their pros and cons.

It's kind of like the debate of CLI vs. GUI. The best thing, IMHO, is having both since both are great for doing things that the other isn't.

Really it seems to be a matter of choosing the tool right for the job. For instance, I sometimes find it more convenient to use apt while at other times I find it more convenient to use Synaptic. I don't use aptitude much, but I'm sure as time goes on I will find more situations where it seems to be the most useful.

In a way this kind of brings up the beauty of Linux - that we have many tools available that work really good for different situations. Since majority of Linux software is free, this allows us to have our cake and eat it too. I mean how great is it that when you run into a situation where your current tool seems to be limited, that you can usually make a visit to the respository (via apt, synaptic, or aptitude ) and find a tool that'll be just right for the job. And to top it off, if you find that said tool was only handy in that very rare circumstance, it's a trivial matter to remove it afterward or reinstall in the future should you happen to need it again.

I guess I see it all as win-win. About the only downside, if it can really be considered much of one, is that the diversity does steepen the learning curve and time investment. But to me, it easily worth it. Especially in the long run considering how much more of a broadenned outlook it gives you on things.

Just like everything, it's always a double-edged sword full of tradeoffs. If we had less diversity, it helps make things simpler, but that also reenforces complacency and dependency, not to mention, lack of future innovation. Innovation only comes from thinking outside of the box. And that only happens as new twists to things enter the picture. So, for instance, us debian users have apt, dselect, aptitude, and synaptic available (did I forget any? Wouldn't be surprised if I did), but the different types of methodology to approaching the same solution will most likely be a spring board for future ideas and innovation down the road. Say, all we had was apt for years and years, and it was considered the end all be all of package management utils. It would probably be a long time before we new ideals that might make the experience better or help with versatility in how to tackle a situation.

I've heard though that debfoster has been taken up by someone else and will be continued. But the deprecation notice is still present in the unstable repository. Hmm.

Isn't this all about freedom? - the F in FOSS?

Compare Synaptic or Aptitude with Windows Update. How long would a program like Windows Update last in Linux?