I really love the concept of repository based software management used in Linux, rather than the “Download the installer, double click, next, next, next, finish” method of Windows (I’ve never used MacOS!). But this repository based software management methods too has some points that disappoint me.
I love to test programs a lot, I usually use development releases of software than final releases (Read the post “බීටා මේනියාව” – which was written in Sinhala – to find more about my love for alpha and beta software.). So, every time I have to update my OS’s – that is Ubuntu - repository information, the OS has to communicate with quite a lot of repositories and that takes hell of a long time to complete! More to the problem, as I am using Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat Alpha 2 release these days, I update my OS at-least twice a day – in the early morning, while I am getting ready to go to school and at about 7 o’clock each day – to make sure I have most recent and bug fixed software.
Imagine how’d it feel waiting about 5 minutes for the OS to update it’s repository information (I have to “wait” thanks to my super high speed Internet connection! I can’t to anything with the Internet while the OS is being updated.)!
The problem is, all repository information are updated regardless of whether the repository had been changed since the last repository information update. If repositories can tell OS the last time the repository was changed, OSs can choose whether information about that particular repository should be updated or not. That’ll save quite a hell of a time as OS then don’t have to update information about each repository!
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