Linux Package Install Preferences
People are flocking to Linux these days. Often, they bring with them computer knowledge from other systems that simply do not apply for most Linux systems.
One of those is about installing software. There is no setup.exe or install.exe for Linux systems. If fact, if you find yourself installing 99.999999% of Linux software in that way, you’ve already failed. Of course, this applies to Linux distros with a package manager. If you are running a non-package manager Linux, then you aren’t reading this anyway.
So, if you are running Redhat, CentOS, SUSE, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, then here’s the order of preference for choosing to install software.
General order of install preference:
- official ubuntu/redhat/debian repo – modified to fit into the Ubuntu-way of doing things.
- official PPA from program development team – choose Ubuntu version, if available.
- unofficial PPA from “trusted source” – be careful with this. Reputation matters HUGELY.
- .deb/.rpm file – be VERY CAREFUL doing this – it can and eventually will break APT/RPM dependencies in a few months. Soon the system won’t patch at all and not just for this 1 package, but the entire system.
- Source – that is .tgz, .tar.gz, and similar files.
The first 2 options should keep the software patched and updated, which is important. The other methods won’t. You will be responsible to manually maintain the packages and security.
Sure, a few times you may be forced to load software from source – this needs to be the exception for production systems, not the rule. Using source may be argued as better than installing .deb or .rpm files. Source doesn’t break dependencies in the package management of the system.
Clear? Disagree?
