Common Application Installer for Linux

It's a nice idea. I've noticed that some of the binary packages I've downloaded tend not to work well because of one dependency or another not being met, as the builder used one configuration and my machine is another. Add to the idea of the installer and have it take tar.gz, .bz2, whatever files, as source and compile them for your system then create the installer/uninstaller for you, that might be good. You're still going to run into dependency errors, as most people like to tweak their systems and I'd bet, 70% or more of the systems out there are not the same. 70% is a pretty conservative estimate I think.

Now, if the development community were to make all the library files from their build open for the binary distribution, that could work as well, but again you're looking at conflicts etc. Standardization of library functions across all Linux distros and languages would be another start, but you're looking at making a lot of people mad who live on caffeine and 'cutting edge' releases of kernels or other packages.

Make all development packages standard across all distros, make all sources (for all apps) reflect the current libc and kernel version, irritate a lot of people, and you've got your installer.

Please, don't misunderstand, I like the idea, I use RPMs whenever possible, but I don't think we will see a universal standard installer within the next 6 months...