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0 pointsmapgrep15y ago0 comments

There is no package manager built into Linux.

There are a variety package managers to choose from on Linux (apt, yum, portage) just as on Mac OS X (which has MacPorts, Homebrew, and Fink).

Perhaps you are thinking of apt, a popular, slick, "best of breed" package manager that is native on exactly one of the many Linux distributions: Debian. It is technically "third party," though "built in," on other Linux distributions like Ubuntu, which is based on Debian but not the same thing as Debian.

Anyway, packaging is a mess on both Linux and OS X. Even on Ubuntu and Debian you have to go outside the built in packager for a truly good experience in certain cases, e.g. Ruby via rvm; Rails and other ruby packages via gem; Perl modules via CPAN, etc.

Yes, OS X would be better with a package manager other than the one built into the App Store, but a lack of one does not make it Not Unix.

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2 comments · 1 top-level

rmc15y ago· 1 in thread

Balls to semantics! :) If you install Linux on your machine, you get a distro and you get a package manager. It's not third party to your OS it comes with you OS, your OS is installed with it, you OS is upgraded with the package manager. You only need to use the package manager that comes with your OS (i have never had to use yum while on a debian os). None is true on OSX.

The OSX package managers are not as good as apt (the one package manager I have a lot of experience), in the same way Nextstep is not as good as OSX. The fact that you need to have more than one installed and use for different software (my experience working with fink afnd macports in OSX tiger days) shows that its not as good as apt

blasdel15y ago

Fink is apt, and it is by far the worst of the three package managers available for OS X.

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