Is a Unified Qt-based Package manager possible?

[Francis Giannaros]

There's no need for another whole package management system, particularly when 
there are a few already out there to do the job. 

In my opinion, the Smart package management ( http://labix.org/smart ) system 
is shaping up to be one of the best; it supports APT, APT-RPM, YUM, Yast 
sources, URPMI, etc and has an excellent design. The developers of apt-rpm 
migrated to its development, it's used extensively on Mandriva and SUSE now, 
and Shuttleworth has spoken of Ubuntu possibly using it in Edgy Eft 
(dapper+1). 

The backend is absolutely excellent, it offers multiple interfaces (one like 
apt, and an interactive shell like y2pmsh), and the only thing I think it's 
currently lacking is a KDE front-end (it currently only has a python GTK 
front-end, which isn't ideal).

If you plan on working on a package manager, I'd definitely recommend 
channelling those efforts into working on just a GUI front-end of what's 
currently available. Smart's interfaces are monolithic, too, so that should 
help a lot. 

Kind thoughts,
Francis Giannaros (apokryphos).