In ruby, I simply have to do gem install ABC and I have it regardless of distro.
I would accept your argument if python were giving library installation instructions in terms of distro-independent puppet configuration - but basically, you do have to build the abstraction somewhere.
Its not about technology - I think lisp has a bunch of different package managers and it is the same problem that ruby solves using gem (bad example?). Clojure has different package-management tools, but a single packaging format - that would have been a recipe for future disaster which hopefully has been averted (http://groups.google.com/group/clojure/browse_thread/thread/...)
People make different naming choices - for example , take a look at distro specific installation information at http://code.google.com/p/neuroinfotoolkit/wiki/Installation
In ruby, I simply have to do gem install ABC and I have it regardless of distro.
I would accept your argument if python were giving library installation instructions in terms of distro-independent puppet configuration - but basically, you do have to build the abstraction somewhere.
Its not about technology - I think lisp has a bunch of different package managers and it is the same problem that ruby solves using gem (bad example?). Clojure has different package-management tools, but a single packaging format - that would have been a recipe for future disaster which hopefully has been averted (http://groups.google.com/group/clojure/browse_thread/thread/...)