I’m using 11.2 for the first time. I’m used to ubuntu and mandriva.
using yast to install packages… it seems like every package is much bigger than when installing with apt-get. I’m installing K3b now and it says its installing 146 mb, that about twice as big as in apt-get. Why is this?
overall opensuse is nice, but ubuntu and mandriva are much faster at installing programs. why is opensuse so slow?
As far as i know, K3B is by default installed in KDE version.
If you are installing it in gnome, for sure it will satisfy the dependencies and libraries.
Other than that, you can review the installation summay b4 hitting the Accept button. So that will tell what is going to be installing.
Additionally, different package managers use different compression algorithms. That might account for some of it.
Whether SUSE is slower at updates than others is a vexed question. A lot of people report that, but to me it seems fine - I suppose it depends how near a server you are.
Remember that you can use delta rpms for some updates - that speeds things up hugely.
su
zypper patch
zypper up
Not sure where you are getting 146 mb from, but k3b is 4.1 megabytes. That is according to the software manager in Yast.
it has to be all the dependencies.
Where are you getting these packages from?
In fact, typically with openSUSE’s yast/zypper the packages are smaller than with apt-get where apt-get is used on any other distribution.
That is because openSUSE’s package management system will allow update/change packages, and not require the entire package. apt-get to the best of my knowlege does not support that “update” method and apt-get requires the entire package.
If you are finding apt-get requires less, IMHO your system with apt-get was likely bloated before, and hence did not need any extra bloat.
Not so.
The size shown in Yast’s software manager status line is the size AFTER decompression and installation. The download AND the installed size are shown in the log panel for each package, as they are being downloaded and installed (kinda obvious, sorry:)).
Usually - but not always - the download size is much smaller, about half or 1/3 of the installed size.
Also note that when using Yast’s update module the size shown is the package size, but the downloads are only the SMALLER deltas, so it works out much faster.
Does YaST use deltas automatically then? I wondered about that, but didn’t find anything definitive (not that I looked all that hard… ;))
If you are running gnome and you install a KDE based program it is very likely that a large number of KDE libraries will be installed to support the application. Same goes the other way if you run KDE and install a gnome package gnome dependencies will be installed. If you install other packages from the other desktop then fewer and fewer additional packages will be needed since previous installs have already provided them.
I think deltas are used by the updater. If you use the management tool you get the whole package.
Both the updater applet and Yast’s update module are only front-ends for the same tools (zipper/rpm, I think). All updates (that I have noticed) are deltas, very small in relation to the full packages.
OTOH the software manager (be it ‘install software’ or Yast’s module, also just front-ends) work with full packages.