Gksu in 14.04?

James Freer jessejazza3.uk at gmail.com
Fri Aug 8 19:43:36 UTC 2014


On Fri, 8 Aug 2014, Tom H wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 1:21 PM, MR ZenWiz <mrzenwiz at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 3:06 AM, Tom H <tomh0665 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> synaptic | 0.81.1ubuntu1 | http://uk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
>>> trusty-updates/universe amd64 Packages
>>> synaptic | 0.81.1 | http://uk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
>>> trusty/universe amd64 Packages
>>
>> Can someone explain why synaptic is in universe and not main?  Was
>> there a replacement or did Canonical just decide to dump it?
>
> I've never used either but I assume the Ubuntu Software Center is the
> reason - or is the latter different?

I'll try and explain.

Why use synaptic? It's graphical, nice interface and easy to use. For 
installing it's perfect but for removal it does not remove dependencies 
completely. But does that matter... not really with *buntu as one is installing 
the new release every 6 months. Why the software centre? More graphical and 
that's what users generally like. So synaptic is given the back seat.

What's wrong with Aptitude? - debian's default package management system until 
more recently... outstanding but is a little bit 'too clever by half'. Also cli 
and quasi gui which isn't to everyone's liking.

Apt - quick, easy and effective with it. Only package management that removes 
dependencies with 'autoremove' option (purge option doesn't work fully although 
does with aptitude). Debian no longer use aptitude as their default package 
management app. Apt is the best choice and because users like things graphical 
the software centre is utilised but hardly a replacement for synaptic.

james





More information about the ubuntu-users mailing list