PackageKit is a background service charged with updating and installing software on your computer. But because PackageKit itself is just a background service it requires a front end so that end users can take advantage of the system. One very powerful front end is KPackageKit.

PackageKit aims to take the pain out of the package management on GNU/Linux systems and create a system that can compete with Windows and Mac. Development is proceeding at a rapid pace and it is set to be available in Fedora 9. To find out more, we talked to Richard Hughes, project creator, and Robin Norwood, the Fedora feature owner; as always, you can catch some screenshots at the end!

Different GNU/Linux distributions provide incompatible systems for package management, and to date no one has quite figured out a foolproof way to get the best of them all.

Package managers make life on Linux a whole lot easier. Instead of managing bits of software by yourself and sorting out the inevitable dependency hell, where one package depends upon another and that depends upon yet another and so on, you can have a clever bit of software do all the work.

All Linux distributions have things in common, but many differ in software installation and updating. Gentoo Linux is based on Portage, SUSE uses YaST, Red Hat and Fedora opt for yum, Linspire prefers CNR.... Oh, and don't forget the different package options: RPM, Debian, source, and more esoteric options.

Unlike other Linux distributions that feature a graphical package manager, Chakra’s tend to have issues handling major updates, so a decision was made not to ship a graphical package in the April ISO image. Which meant that installing and updating applications (and the system) on a default installation of Chakra Archimedes 2012.04 could only be accomplished from the command line.

Kpackagekit is the default package manager on Kubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty)..These are some first impressions and troubleshoots..

Security vulnerabilities are often the result of software bugs. It is important to keep software up-to-date, as malicious parties often can exploit bugs in outdated software. Package managers were created to automate the process of package update and installation, however, if the package manager is not secure, it may represent another avenue of attack!

NixOS is designed as a test of Nix, a new package manager designed to overcome key problems with existing package managers. As a result, what you think of NixOS is likely to depend largely on your interest in package management.