"Managing packages can be a tricky undertaking, even with package tools like the RPM Package Manager (RPM), the package management tool used by Conectiva, Fedora, Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE, Yellow Dog, and many other distributions. With RPM, you may try to install a package, only to find that it depends on others you don't have. Or, you might discover that your packages are several versions out of date and then have to track down and install potentially dozens of updates to fix security and other problems with the old packages.
"The Debian distribution has long had a solution to these problems: the Advanced Package Tools (APT), a set of programs that help manage packages. APT lies at a layer above Debian's usual lower-level package management tools, such as dpkg (Debian's equivalent to rpm). By linking to one or more package repositories, APT can streamline software installation, upgrades, and other management operations..."
