Package management
Can you flesh them out easily?
We don’t all use the same apps on our computers, which s why package management is one of the first things we test on any distro. All the projects featured in this Roundup are pretty much equally efficient in this aspect, though for different reasons.
Bunsenlabs makes it easy to install popular apps by adding entries to fetch and install them within the application menu itself. The distro also makes it a point to let users know that they shouldn’t install software from outside the official sources, and particularly advises against adding Ubuntu PPAS.
Tiny Core has a unique package-installation process. When installing a new application, you can choose between having the package load into the distribution automatically at boot time or on demand. Choosing to load a package at boot makes it available to you immediately after a reboot. On the other hand, choosing to load it on demand will speed up boot times, as the app isn’t loaded – or mounted, in Tiny Core parlance. To use an on-demand app, you’ll first have to load it manually.
Packages in Bionicpup are called pets and have a PET extension… awww. You can install packages using the distro’s custom Puppy Package Manager tool. By default, the package manager fetches apps from Ubuntu’s repositories, but you can configure it to download packages from other Puppy repositories as well. You can also download Squashfs files (compressed environments) for some popular apps like Kodi, Kdenlive,
Libreoffice, WPS Office and more.
Q4OS is the only other distro that bundles its own custom app center, which you can use to install about 19 mainstream apps including Synaptic, which you can then use to pull any other package from the Debian’s repositories.
Finally there’s antix, which also uses the Synaptic package manager but still ranks higher than the other distros because of its Package Installer app, which can be used to install popular applications in over 30 different categories. This includes individual applications, complete desktops and even different kernels. It also has proprietary apps such as the Spotify player and Steam. The tool is so extensive that you really don’t need to use a package manager unless you need a particular library.