Synaptic Package Manager - the best kind of evil
On another normal chat with Oli from ThePCSpy he mentioned that he'd been playing with Ubuntu recently on a dedicated box and that he was enjoying it. He also mentioned the problem he was having with Synaptic.
Synaptic Package Manager is like shopping on Amazon, with one click purchases where your product arrives (almost) immediately but where everything is free
Synaptic (for those who don't use Linux) is an online catologue of what you can install on your machine. It lists dozens (hundreds even) of packages that you can simply click to install. No searching around in the Internet, no use of the terminal (command line) and nothing complicated. You pick what you want and request it to be downloaded and installed. Synaptic then downloads the application and any pre-requisits and installs them, you're informed that the task was completed and the application is ready to launch from the taskbar.
Why could this possibly be bad?
Well, for a normal person this isn't an issue. However, we've all been there - freedom of choice can be a bad thing when it's free. Most of us have been guilty of over-indulging when there's a free buffet, free bar or on an all-inclusive holiday and that's why Synaptic is the best kind of evil. Because without control you'll fill your hard drive with free applications that you can't live without.
Synaptic is just another reason why usable Linux is becoming increasingly real because no one can argue with the simplicity offered here. You pick it from a catologue, you download it, it installs, it works. No searching the Internet looking for apps, no wondering whether it'll work.
Synaptic - it just works
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