[nzlug] CentOS and the "joys" of rpm based systems

[Nevyn]

On Jan 20, 2008 7:20 PM, Steve Holdoway <steve at greengecko.co.nz> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:10:12 +1300
> Nevyn <nevynh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Jan 20, 2008 6:49 PM, Daniel Pittman <daniel at rimspace.net> wrote:
> > > Nevyn <nevynh at gmail.com> writes:
> > >
> > > [...]
> > >
> > > > My first problem is the tools. I am so used to Ubuntu and Debian that
> > > > I'm feeling quite lost. Commands like ifconfig and apt-get just aren't
> > > > there.
> > >
> > > [...]
> > >
> > > > As for ifconfig, I have no idea what the equivalent in Redhat based
> > > > systems is.
> > >
> > > ifconfig, found in /sbin.
> >
> > My apologies for the whole ifconfig thing... I thought I had issued a
> > "su -" command, which would've given me the paths of the root user
> > ("sudo su -" for you Ubuntu users out there).
> >
> > No one knows of an apt-get which will work from within CentOS? (I've
> > always had issues with yum)
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > NZLUG mailing list NZLUG at linux.net.nz
> > http://www.linux.net.nz/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nzlug
>
> ISTR
>
>   yum install apt
>
> works, but I really wouldn't bother. A package manager is a package manager after all, and I've had just as many issues with apt as with yum ( well, except for that python overflow thing, but that was a long time ago ) over the years. I think you'll find CentOS 5.1 has been available since before christmas if that's of any use to you.
>
> Steve

The only reason I'm bothering is that I'm comfortable with Debian
based systems. I like them. I like knowing my way around them.
However, it seems that Redhat have done significant work on Xen which
I can't say for any Debian distribution out there so it seems CentOS
is the go. However, I really don't want to work with a tool I hate,
even if it is the default, when alternatives do exist and work (it's
not a 64-bit system so the multilib thing  isn't a concern.

In an Ubuntu system, I seldom have to download a .deb file and install
it using dpkg. I normally just add a repository and let the updates
and everything happen automatically. (One of my big gripes with
Windows is that to update my system I have to go to 20 odd sites,
download the patches or updated drivers etc., usually after logging in
or registering, and go through each patch or updated whatever and
install them, usually with a reboot in between each of them.). I
really don't want to be doing this same sort of thing with a Linux
distro.

I've seen references to just running "yum install apt" before but this
doesn't seem to be happening and there's no reference to adding
repositories anywhere that I've seen.