I've been thinking about switching to aptitude, but I've heard people say "if you're already using apt-get, you should wait until your next installation to switch." Why do people say this? What sort of problems (if any) can this cause?
Linux – Can it cause problems to switch from apt-get to aptitude
debianlinuxpackage-managementUbuntu
Best Answer
apt-get and aptitude are different UIs that are part of the same package management system, APT, the Advanced Packaging Tool. For instance, both are configured using
/etc/apt/apt.conf, both use the same filespace and formats to represent package state, and the same filespace to store downloaded .debs.How they differ is their internal rule system to represent potential conflicts between package, how to resolve them (say during
apt-get dist-upgradevs.aptitude full-upgrade), and how to express these when interacting with the user. Generally speaking, both might do the wrong thing in tricky situations, but apt-get is much more likely to get it wrong than aptitude.