It should be noted that the nix package manager (http://nixos.org/nix/) already has:

   * Atomic upgrades
   * Rollbacks
   * Reproducible builds

As well as a bunch of other solutions to common annoyances all as a result of an elegant core design. It's not yet user friendly though (the command line interface is reminiscent of early git), but I'm hopeful that it can be, given a little time and effort.

Now make that API agnostic so I can use package from any distribution (deb,rpm,pkg,static build) and I am in!

FYI we also know guix...

My main problem is that you repackage every lib and build it on your own, sometimes some patching is necessary to make it nix aware.

And here we go http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1434

This article feels a little confused.

> But today, iOS and Android have redefined the app installation experience, and packages seem like a step backwards.

I'm no expert on iOS & Android internals. But surely there are packages and a package manager hiding behind the app installation process.

What is different is the UX. The package manager has been given a very different interface.

An important part of this involves cultural assumptions about what users can be expected to know. That a user might be asked what to do with an sshd config file is not a problem with the concept of a package manager, but with the (increasingly incorrect) assumptions made in the Linux world about the technical expertise[1] of the user.

In any case, yes, I'm all for improving the interfaces we use to install & manage software.

[1] Expertise and interest. I'm perfectly capable of making decisions about sshd config files. However, I don't want to.