Whoa! I just reloaded my PC with Fedora Core 3, (due to the boot partition problem listed from yesterday). Well, I found the coolest application. I prefer to use Apt-get to update, install and manage packages on my system. Well, there is a GUI front end for apt-get that is very nice. Its called Synaptic, and it can be installed by running apt-get install synaptic. I loaded this up today, and it prompted me that I had 2 copies of XMMS and GAIM installed on my machine. So I was able to browse installed packages and mark both XMMS and GAIM for removal. It is VERY much like the old windows add/remove programs, accept, when you remove a file using apt, it automatically removes and updates all unused and effected dependency files!

There is also a browse by content section where you can install certain packages. Say you wanted to install a game – there is a section in the left pane of Synaptic for the category Entertainment/Games. Just browse this list for what you want to install.

The best part of Synaptic is this: I hate searching for dependencies, so when I install the operating system, I prefer to choose the EVERYTHING option. This installs about 7 Gigs of garbage to your computer. With Synaptic, I can go into my install and select every extra, unwanted package (such as estonian language pack for KDE and other apps) and remove them without ruining the dependencies on the system. So, I removed all language packs for KDE except english, and then Removed all the Devel packs that I don’t want and I still have 100% dependency support, but my total install has shrunk to about 4.5 Gig. (still big, I know, but no need to Upgrade language packs that I don’t use.)

I don’t know if I can talk it up enough. I knew apt was good for keeping the computer alive and compliant, but who knew that it was so awesome!

Note to all you Fedora power users, if you use synaptic, good for you. But if you are still using up2Date, the Synaptic/Apt combo is not only more effecient, its easier to use.

One downfall, though, it doesn’t install all the garbage that updates the little system update monitor in your taskbar. I ran all the updates for my system, and the check box still remained a red exclaimation point. I went into up2date to see what it wanted me to update to get that to go away, and they wanted me to download 3 or 4 different kernels and the source, as well as the source for KDE before it would go away. So, if you end up using Synaptic, you might consider disabling that notifier.