Apt / Deb Support in Fedora

I want to have some apt / debian support in Fedora 18. I know how to use yum, and I like it. But not all packages / repositories are available for it. So, I wanna install apt (apt-get) to my Fedora.

But I don't know whether yum integrates well with it or not. If I had the two package managers installed, would my system be messed?

PS. I always try to use Fedora / rpm software, but I think it would be much easier to work if I had the two package managers.

Update - Conclusion

My conclusion is: try to stick and use yum, it is more distro friendly and better integrated. If you ever need a package that is not listed in your custom repos (or in the official ones), try to download it and compile it from source. It is better than try to port deb packages to rpm (at least for now).

Solution 1:

One of the basic ways that Linux distributions can be divided into groups is whether they are .rpm or .deb based. In other words, whether they're based on Debian or Red Hat (the other great category is SlackWare and its derivatives but they use source packages and are a whole different kettle of fish). Not all package-based Linux distros can be placed in one of these two categories but most can. for a graphical overview, see this wonderful image from wikipedia.

So, what you are trying to do is not really possible. There are ways of installing .deb packages on .rpm-based distros and vice versa (have a look at alien) but not natively. It is not simply a matter of installing apt on Fedora or rpm on Debian. The way the packages are set up is different.

However, I really really doubt that you will find many packages that do not exist in both .rpm and .deb repositories. Probably, all you need to do is add the right repo. If you cannot find an rpm for a given package in the repository you are using, try searching for it and installing manually.

Solution 2:

According to this there is an apt port for fedora, apt-rpm, but it has (or had) some downsides compared with yum. If there are some packages missing I suggest to look if they are available on other repos or you could build them from source.

Solution 3:

As terdon already said, you can not install another package manager on Fedora. But what I would recommend is: add other Repositories. The essential one that provides all the packages Fedora cannot provide itself due to legal issues is RPM Fusion. If you need other packages, check the Repositories listed here.

If a package is not included in any repository (rare, but happens), the best thing would be to install it from source.