In reply to:

My point wasn't that using .deb (or .rpm or whatever) package formats would make the software any more space consuming, but that this would probably lead some people to try and install a standard package (read: software not compiled specifically for the empeg) on the empeg.



I don't think that people that get in touch with third party software for the Empeg will try to install standard Debian packages. First of all, what would be the point and second, we don't have to tell them that they're Debian packages, we can "even" change the extension.

People that are as dumb as trying to install regular Debian packages will not know what Debian is or that we are using Debian's package format, so I think the risk is rather small. (and after all, we should put a huge banner "you are risking data loss on your Empeg" on all software packages anyway)

As for recompiling the dpkg tool, this is not necessary as all default paths can be overridden using the commandline.

Till