I just converted from Portage to Paludis about 30 minutes ago on my Gentoo system. Paludis is an alternative package manager for the very buggy Portage maintained by Gentoo. This new package manager is supposed to make it easier to add new packages.
In past, Gentoo had a reputation for being bleeding edge. You could install the latest packages straight from Portage even with unmasking them. The developers in the past were great in adding ‘stable’ new packages for Gentoo users. Now, with a large number of Gentoo developers leaving, or some would say, defecting, Portage cannot be maintained as it used to be in the past. This, in turn, has created many problems sometimes resulting in broken systems.
Ironically, many of the ex-Gentoo developers seem to be the ones behind creating alternative package managers for Portage. Sabayon Linux, a bleeding edge derivative of Gentoo, has developed Entropy, a binary package management system. Entropy will be a great replacement for those who are just tired of compiling packages on their system.
Another group of Gentoo developers created Paludis. I have a strong feeling that they will win over a large number of converts. Converting from Portage to Paludis can be done with a simple bash script. Paludis functionality in consoles is similar to Portage. I am still trying to get a feel for it. Thank God all the pertinent files are stored in /etc/paludis. It will take a couple days to get used to the commands in updating my system. I still need to figure out how the USE flags will be used in Paludis though I heard it has been simplified.
I am curious the next stages of development for Paludis. This project seems to be working hand-in-hand with, Exherbo, a new Linux distro currently being developed by ex-Gentoo developers. Something tells me that a future Exherbo just might be the fork many Gentoo users have been waiting for since the departure of Daniel Robbins.
Let’s just wait and see 🙂