New software idea, helping users find preferred applications.

[Chuck Vose]

One of the killers I think is that you'll either have to:

a) manually update this database all the time, yourself. This would be
impossible; it must be automated.
b) convince the debian guys to change .deb or redhat to change .rpm.
This hasn't happened in a while but it could be done.

However, both apt and rpm have utilities to search through their
package file descriptions. For apt you have 'apt-cache search
keyword'. Perhaps you don't need a database?

These are two of the most important facets of software design. It must
be able to maintain itself, because you will get tired of it and quit
maintaining. And it must also not change anything else or require
anything of anyone else. IPv6 is floundering right now because they
saw no way to make the transistion from IPv4 completely effortless. I
see this project in the same category, it's really needed but because
it requires changes from others you need to be prepared to be in it
for the longest haul.

The last point I would mention is that before starting a project you
need to be sure that you can do the whole thing. People have a
mistaken conception that others will build the software but in all
reality other contributors tend to merely send in a patch once in a
while to fix something they like, the onus will be on the developer to
program everything. So, I would suggest that you become a guru or at
least get a working version working, or find a sponsor to dump this
project on (though I think the first will be easier :)

I believe in you guys, I think it'll be a great project. Keep up the
work even if it takes a while.

Love,
Chuck Vose