It's stuff like this that we come back for in the long run. It is about time someone said what I, and many other Debian users, have known for quite a while. The freedom and joy of having a real Unix system that can be easily patched, updated, and upgraded is something all users of lesser systems should experience. The RPM hell is a nightmare nobody should endure for long. Aaron C. Springer Standardize the process, not the method RPM works fine for me.
RPM works as the package format and is nice and simple.
However, Yup is my front-end for updating and installing RPMs with dependency resolution. It is small, written in Python, and uses apt-get syntax. Unlike the apt port for RPM, Yup requires no patching to the main RPM source. Standards should allow innovation.