Published at LXer:

Just about any distro these days installs nicely to the hard drive. What can sometimes happen is that the system breaks when packages are added to the collection which the distro provides by default. And when packages are removed from the provided collection, no-longer-necessary «helper» programs may be left behind, or «orphaned». Work-arounds include sticking with packages which the distro itself supplies in its repository. In the world of Debian, some distros may «tweak» purely-Debian packages to fit better with the overall distro. It is in this context that the question presents itself: is the Debian «Aptitude» tool something which a Debian-based distro might want to use when it builds its version on the shop floor? And might even a certain type of newbie want eventually to «graduate» to Debian in a more nearly perfectly «pure» form and use Aptitude like this? Has Aptitude not been widely discussed because it's not yet in widespread use? ‑‑ This essay seeks to raise these questions from the perspective of a total newbie.

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