Ideas for NPPM (name pending package manager)
* Short command name (I don't want to type out a 100-char string just to install a package!)
* Support both binary and source packages, freely mixable
* For source packages, add ability to apply user-supplied patches as part of installation process
* Downloading packages, installing packages, and dependencies should all be part of the package manager (no stupid {apt,urpmi,etc}-on-{rpm,deb} frontend-backend combos). Curses/gtk/qt frontends can be separate though.
* Ability to manage user-compiled programs as packages (a la checkinstall - http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/)
* Developer flag in config file - if set, nppm will automatically install development packages when installing a library.
* Subpackages, i.e. foo:binaries, foo:libs, foo:docs, foo:devel (this was used in another package manager, don't remember which one). Defaults to binaries, libs, and docs, and devel if developer flag is set.
* Package categories. Not a lot of them, but a few, just for organization. And no kde-base, kde-extra-ish schemes either. (That's what metapackages are for.)
* Allow concurrent nppm instances, after determining that they won't interfere with each other (updating a package while removing it, etc.)
Ideas for the distro it's used in:
* No distro "versions" - just constantly update the packages in the repos. The installer CD may be date-versioned.
* Make it so that usually I won't have to compile anything, but if I have to make it easy to do (generally, don't put stuff in funky nonstandard locations like /opt.)
* Don't use /usr/local.
* Move /root to /home/root. It *is* a homedir, after all.
* No overbranding - I know what distro I'm running, and if I don't there are better ways to tell me besides shoving a huge logo in my face every time I log in. (Logos on bootsplashes are fine, as people generally don't watch them anyway :-) )
* Naming rules:
- Nothing super-lame sounding, and no long lists of 100 superfluous qualifiers ("Welcome to Super Hyper Platinum Gold Silver Linux OS XP Premium Professional Home Ham-and-cheese Omelette Edition")
- Nothing that even slightly reminds us of another distro or OS, especially a crappy one
* Use nppm of course :-)