The Best Package Managers for Linux Newbies

A new Linux user should know that his or her progress comes from using Linux distributions, which come in several varieties and manage packages in different ways.



In Linux

development , the package manager is very important. Knowing how to use a variety of package managers can make your life as comfortable as a master, from downloading software in repositories, installing software, to updating software, handling dependencies and deleting software. Very importantly, this is also an important part of

Linux system administration. A sign of being a Linux whiz is knowing how the major Linux distributions handle packages, in this article we should take a look at some of the best package managers you can find on Linux, here our main focus is Information about some of the best package managers, but not how to use them, is left to you to discover for yourself. But I'll provide some meaningful links, how-to guides or more. 1. DPKG - Debian Package Management System Debian Package Management System Dpkg is the basic package management system of the Debian Linux family, which is used to install, delete, store and provide information about .deb packages. This is a low-level tool, and there are several front-end tools that can help users fetch packages from remote repositories, or handle complex package relationships, including the following: Reference: 15 "dpkg" for Debian-based distributions "Command instance APT (Advanced Packaging Tool) This is a front-end tool for the dpkg package management system, which is a very popular, free and powerful, and useful command-line package manager system.


































Users of Debian and its derivatives such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint should be very familiar with this package management tool.



To see how it works, you can check out these HOW TO guides:



Reference: 15 Examples of How to Use the New APT Tool on Ubuntu/Debian

Reference : 25 Useful APT-Tools for Package Management The basic command of GET and APT-CACHE

Aptitude Package Manager



This is also a very well-known command-line front-end package management tool for the Debian Linux family. It works like APT. There are many places to compare between them, however, you should two Try both to see which one works better.



It was originally designed for Debian and its derivatives, but now its functionality extends to the RHEL family. You can refer to this guide to learn more about APT and Aptitude.



Synaptic Package Manager



Synaptic is a visual package manager based on GTK+ APT, which is very useful for some users who don't want to use the command line.



2. RPM - Red Hat Package Manager Red Hat Package Manager



This is the Linux Basic Standard (LSB) packaging format and basic package management system created by Red Hat. Based on this underlying system, there are multiple front-end package management tools at your disposal, but we should only look at the best ones, and that is:



YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified)



This is an open source, popular command-line package manager, which is the user interface (one of) for using RPM. You can compare it with APT in DebianLinux system, it has the same function as APT. You can understand YUM more clearly from the examples in this HOW TO guide:



Reference: 20 YUM Commands for Package Management

DNF (the graceful YumDandified Yum)



This is also a package manager for RPM based distributions, Fedora 18 introduced it and it is the next generation of YUM.



If you use Fedora 22 and newer, you definitely know it's the default package manager. Here are some links that will give you more information about DNF and how to use it.



Reference: DNF - The Next Generation of Universal Package Management Software for RPM-Based Distributions

Reference : 27 Examples of 'DNF' Commands for Managing Fedora Packages

3. Pacman Package Manager – Arch Linux



This is a popular, powerful and easy-to-use Package manager for Arch Linux and some other niche distributions. It provides some basic functionality that other package managers provide, including installing, automatically resolving dependencies, upgrading, uninstalling, and downgrading software.



But the biggest benefit is that it creates a simple and easy way to manage packages for Arch users. You can read the Pacman overview which explains some of the features mentioned above.



4. Zypper Package Manager – openSUSE



This is a command-line package manager for OpenSUSE systems made using the libzypp library. Its common functions include accessing repositories, installing packages, resolving dependencies, and other functions.



What's more, it can also support repository extension features such as schemas, patches and products. New OpenSUSE users can refer to the link below to get hold of it.



5. Portage Package Manager – Gentoo



is the package manager for Gentoo, a less popular distribution right now, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the best package managers for Linux.



The main goal of the Portage project is to create a simple, trouble-free package management system with backward compatibility, automation, and more.



Conclusion



As I mentioned at the beginning, the main intent of this guide is to provide Linux development

users with a list of the best package managers, but knowing how to use them can go through the important links provided afterward and actually try them out try them.



Users of individual distributions need to learn something beyond their distribution to better understand these different package managers mentioned above.