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Originally Posted by eschwartz
What is better about dependency management on Ubuntu vs. other distros?
I assume it is all just a matter of naming what you want and having all the necessary pieces installed -- on any distro?
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Yes. The trick is the package manager understanding what pieces are necessary.
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I am running Arch Linux right now, and the difference is primarily that things get updated faster -- and Arch by design doesn't install optdepends (since you might not want them).
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I haven't tried all distros. (That would be the work of a lifetime.)
Ubuntu was a win for me because it did the best job I'd seen in a distro of figuring out what it was being installed on, setting itself up, and Just Working. I'm a tech. I was a Unix Admin before Linux existed. I know how to pop the hood and fiddle. I know how to answer the questions other distros ask in the install process, and diddle things at the system level. It's not how I want to spend my time. I installed Linux to have a system I could use, and Ubuntu installed to a usable state with no user intervention. (A commenter elsewhere who uses Ubuntu said essentially "I'm a developer. My clients pay me to create code. Time spent fiddling with the OS is time
not spent doing what I get
paid for, so I want an OS that minimizes the amount of fiddling I have to do." I agree.)
Once up, adds and upgrades were mostly painless. Every app has dependencies in the form of libraries it needs. Ubuntu's package manager keeps track of what you already have, so when you install something you don't have, anything that it depends on that isn't installed comes with it, and things Just Work. (Ubuntu also distinguishes between offerings, and defaults to free software, but can install non-free if you choose.)
I haven't tried Arch, but I'm willing to believe it handles package management well. If I were looking at other distros, Arch is one I'd try. Linux Mint is another.
Which distro to use becomes a matter of religious argument, but it's not an argument I'm interested in having. Ubuntu works for me. It may not work for others, but there are more alternatives that might than I can keep track of.
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Dennis