DebianPlanet takes up the discussion of past and future efforts
to port dpkg and apt-get to non-Debian (and non-Linux) systems
(like Solaris). Conectiva has shown that apt-get can be bolted on
to RPM-based systems, but this discussion is more ambitious in
scope.
"As Philip Brown eloquently puts it in a post to
Debian-devel, "The Debian Packaging Manual goes above and beyond
simple packaging. It specifies 'It must be compilable using this
method'. apt-get merely takes advantage of existing Debian
standards." Debian developer Chad Miller did draw up a draft plan
to overcome some of these shortfalls with solutions such as
designing a set of dummy packages that claim to satisfy the 'base'
package requirements of most Debian's packages. However, Chad
himself indicates he too is wary of Ben's past experiences, and the
project itself hasn't been worked on too much. Until more attempts
are made, it's probably best to check out solutions such as pkg-get
which is used by groups such as sunfreeware. In the meantime, are
there other package management alternatives such as BSD's famous
ports system for other Unices such as Solaris?"
