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Debian Package of the Day 58
A user writes "The Debian project has started a new webpage: the 'Debian package of the day.' It does what it says — every day another package from the Debian repository is posted with an elaborate description and some nice screenshots. As Debian (and all the other distributions as well) contains way too many packages for it to be feasible to inspect all of them yourself, this is then a nice way of learning about all kinds interesting software packages."
Re:OMG (Score:5, Informative)
ATM there's only 72 rc-bugs to be squashed before Etch will be ready (Debian-installer rc2 will be out soon too). Soon enough the most stable Linux distribution ever is released. Thanks to all debian developers around the world.
Not really official (Score:5, Informative)
I'd better prefer package comparations (Score:5, Insightful)
Just an example: I don't mind about an explanation on how good apt-cacher is (a Debian package to cache access to Debian repositories), but it would be much better a side-to-side comparation among apt-cacher, apt-proxy and squid on repository-caching functions so I can use it to make my opinion for my environment.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem here is two-fold:
The bigger problem is that very few people write documentation, and yet so many people seem to want it. I started some here [debian-adm...ration.org], and have been lucky enough to get a reasonable number of submissions from external people. But the fact remains if you wait for people to volunteer to write documentation .. well you'll be a long time waitin
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You need somebody to write the comparisons. Somebody either unbiased, or capable of overlooking that.
You need somewhere to host the writeup(s)."
Well, I think there's already somebody (or, it's suppoused to be somebody at least) writing the "one package a day" articles. My point was not so much about somebody stepping front (they're going to do it on their spare time, so I wouldn't dare to say they *must* do this or that), but about what I would find a better way to get most be
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Ahh I misunderstood - for some reason I was thinking of "comparisons.debian.net", or similar, linked into package descriptions..
Good idea :)
package comparations - with debtags (Score:5, Interesting)
$ apt-cache show vim | grep '^Tag:'
Tag: devel::editor, interface::text-mode, role::program, scope::application, uitoolkit::ncurses, use::editing, works-with::text
then you can search for packages with similar tags
$ debtags search '(works-with::text && use::editing && interface::text-mode)'
and, whoa, you get quite a lot of stuff, and the first entry, abiword-plugins, seems to be mistagged too
HTH
P.S.: Yes, emacs is among the results:
emacs21 - The GNU Emacs editor
[..]
emacs21-nox - The GNU Emacs editor (without X support)
qemacs - Small emacs clone editor with HTML and DocBook editing support
xemacs21-bin - highly customizable text editor -- support binaries
zile - very small emacs-like editor
the closest thing is popcon (Score:2, Interesting)
Try PopCon (Score:5, Informative)
http://popcon.debian.org/ [debian.org]
You are the only man for the job. (Score:2)
My "problem" with debian packages is not to find them (apt-cache makes quite a good job on it) but comparing "competing" packages, and I don't know about any resource on Debian on this.
Ultimately, you are the only person who can judge which application is right for you. Others may and do write their opinion about various packages but those are no substitute for your own experience. Googling narrows things down, but you the best resources are really your peers who are doing the same things or your own t
compatibility (Score:2)
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Maybe Linux App Finder is what you're looking for? It allows users to rate applications.
http://linuxappfinder.com/ [linuxappfinder.com]Re: (Score:2)
No, it isn't. It is an interesting place on its own, but doesn't hit the bulleye. I was talking explicitly about Debian. While one part of a comparasion could be the one that App Finder offers, there are other elements like "beware this package because it's orphaned" or "this is two main versions behind upstream while this other is only one" or (these are real cases) "kmail works awfully on Debian on disconnected IMAP" or "while documentation implies so
Slasdotted ? (Score:1)
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I like portage's description of it better:
A small utility which bothers you at certain intervals
or... (Score:5, Informative)
3..2...1... (Score:2, Funny)
Oops! (Score:1)
top o' the day (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:top o' the day (Score:5, Funny)
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$ a [tab][tab]
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Re:top o' the day (Score:4, Informative)
a2p: Awk to perl. Converts an awk script to a perl script that does the same. Creates a poor script really.
a2ps used to be ascii2postscript, now anything to postscript. Generic converter.
aclocal Part of autoconf, handles checking where things are on the local machine (.pkginfo IIRC)
aclocal-1.9 Ditto for 1.9 (the latest version)
aconnect Dunno
acpi_fakekey Not sure
acpi_listen Monitor for ACPI events (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, which I know far too much due to owning a crap MB)
acpitool Send ACPI commands, query ACPI state
acroread Yeah, I still have acrobat - kpdf doesn't have rotate yet
activation-client Dunno
adddebug Dunno
addftinfo Dunno
addr2line Dunno
adept Nice gui for apt.
adept_batch Backend adept uses to do the commands
adept_installer Backend adept uses to install packages, has a gui
adept_notifier The little widget that goes on your kicker
adept_updater Runs aptitude update
afmdiff.awk Adobe Fount Manager no doubt, but dunno
afmtodit Used by TeX somewhere, font conversion no doubt
akode-config Replacement for ARTS I think
akodeplay See above, does the playing
akregator Really Simple Syndication for KDE
alistat Dunno
alsamixer Does both HW and SW mixing, can be compiled to have a GUI but normally curses
amarok Great music interface
amarokapp The actual binary (don't run gdb against amark, use amarkapp instead...)
amarok_daapserver.rb provides data for itunes clients
amarok_proxy.rb Dunno, though the name gives a strong hint...
amidi From the alsa toolsuite, never needed to use it but no doubt is alsa's interface to MIDI devices
amixer See above, I prefer alsamixer
amor An Amusing Misuse Of Resources. Hadn't realised this was still installed. Puts a silly smiley on windows
animate Dunno
annotate-output Dunno
ant Apache/Jakata. Build system. Supposed to be quite good
anytopnm Convert any image to pnm, uses imagemagick
aplay Alsa player
aplaymidi See above, for
apm Old version of ACPI, this command much like acpitool
apm_available As above, check features MB supports.
apmount Not sure
apmsleep can be sent using apm, but some people might forget the difference between S1 and S3 I suppose
apogee_ppi Dunno
appletproxy Dunno, probably java
appletviewer Ancient java program, not used much since doesn't get used for apps any more.
appres Not sure
apr-config Apache Portable Runtime?
apropos One of the misunderstood and misprounced english words. In this context, much like in LISP, it searches help by keword.
apt A Packaging Tool.
apt-cache Caches dpkgs and Package.gz
apt-cdrom APT method for reading off CDroms (as opposed to normal people, who read off HTTP)
apt-config Query apt from a script for how it is installed
apt-extracttemplates One of apt's internal tools, puls out the 'what this package does'
apt-ftparchive Not sure, probably for reading ftp:// [ftp]
apt-get Get the stuff
aptitude Nice replacement for APT
apt-key GPG key management for APT.
apt-sortpkgs Internal apt tool, I've only seen it used to present lists in alphabetical order but I'm sure it has more features.
apu-config Dunno, sounds familiar.
ar Arrrrr, tar hasn't taken over the world yet... We still have ranlib!
archpath Dunno
arecord alsa recording features
arecordmidi See above
ark KDE archiver. Uses tar rather than ar (I think).
arm2hpdl Dunno
arping Address resolution protocol, look up a host and check it is online/available
artsbuilder clearly ARTS related, but I can't remember exactly what this one does.
artscat See above
artsc-config For checking arts' install state from a script
artscontrol Mute, vol, etc.
artsd The main Adaptive Real Time Synthesiser Daemon
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Screenshots for all packages? ;-) (Score:1, Interesting)
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Just a thought... (Score:3, Interesting)
Now if someone where to be really clever then they would integrate this site into a nice gui package manager and make it available with Ubuntu, or any of the other distro's aimed at new Linux users. It would be nice to get some additional info (screen shots etc..) above and beyond the descriptions that are normally availale when using apt. -- if its already been done then excuse me for not having come across it yet.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Certainly the pages are not just going to vanish. Perhaps the side effect is to create a wiki of debian packages.
I hope this isn't totally random (Score:4, Funny)
liborbit-dev
ORBit is a lightweight CORBA ORB designed for use with the Gnome project. (Nothing about it requires Gnome, though.)
This package contains the headers and static libraries used for developing ORBit-based applications. It also contains the IDL compiler needed to import object definitions into your C programs.
Whoa, sexy!
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idea for enhancement (Score:3, Interesting)
-fragbait
Not quite new (Score:1, Interesting)
If it is, the question will be: Why did it die back in 2004 (the last article is dated Nov. 15, 2004)? I guess it suffered from not enough people actually adding reviews of packages. As this article http://debaday.debian.net/2007/02/15/we-need-your- help-now/ [debian.net] suggest, th
My Recommendation for Today (Score:2, Informative)
Another, analogous effort (Score:2, Interesting)
Disclamer: I made the following, so this post is technically self-promotion.
(Another Unofficial) Debian Package of The Day (updated hourly) [redsymbol.net]
This verion ("POTH" - Package of the Hour) differs from the article feature ("DEBADAY"), in that it is fully automated (subject to some filters for interestingness; libraries, -dev packages, etc. are filtered out.) DEBADAY produces deeper and more interesting descriptions, since they are written by humans. POTH is done by a software agent, so it has greater breadt
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gentoo-portage (Score:1)
same problem w/ a godaddy site (Score:1)
Quake terminal! (Score:2)
This looks decidedly cool. All those people who are used to hitting tilde to get under the hood of their FPS and cheat, or just tweak stuff (admin_slap even)... Well, now they understand. Commandline is cheats for Linux!