Has any one tryed Emerde. If so does it grab .tgz from sites and install them , or does it grab source and then build and install.

from http://emerde.freaknet.org/:

from gentoo.org:

so yes, it builds it from source.

But it doesn't work good with Slackware. It is impossible to coordinate installed packages database from Slack format to emerde's one in correct way (there is a special software for it "pkg2por", but it seems to be "early alfa"). So when you try to install something using Emerde from portage tree, it tries to install many packages that you already have on your system (like XFree86 for example) to satisfy dependencies, because it doesn't see it is already installed.
So until coordination between Emerde's and Slack databases of installed packages will be corrected, it doesn't seem to be useful tool.
By the way, I use "current" version of Slack, maybe Emerde works only with 9.1 (or older) and that's why it doesn't "see" newer versions of packages (like XFree86 4.4)?

I tried Emerde at one point. ANother major annoyance, when I would try to upgradepkg a bunch of files, it would try to get involved and end up killing the process. Another major annoyance, I could find NO documentation on removing it. I ended up reinstalling.

I love emerde, if you're using Slack, and want to try it, have some fun. I don't care if it has some shortcomings, the pros overate the cons. Unlike you read elswhere, you cant use all the flags, etc that emerge uses, so be carefull.

I assume you are connected with emerde since you resurrected a thread that has been dead for 7 months just to say we should try it even if there are problems. Have there been any changes or improvements during that time. Is there an easier way to remove it other than reformatting?

Thanks for the compliment. Im not that talented, at least not yet . I ended up posting, because I was searching for related questions, about emerde. It seems they're are no dummy guides made yet, and no faq's , so if you run into problems, you need to post the mailing list, and that takes days to sort out. I would really like a dummies, or guide for using emerde. Besides that I like it alot, and will use it in the future.