YUM is a software package manager. It is a tool for installing, updating, and removing packages and their dependencies on RPM-based systems. It automatically computes dependencies and figures out what things should occur to install packages. It makes it easier to maintain groups of machines without having to manually update each one using rpm.
I haven't used yum that much. I found it strange however that you had to install a lot of extra pkg management software for simple task such as get the package from the repos (without installing it). apt is more powerful. Strangely however I found that creating rpm packages easier than creating .deb packages so if I were a pkg maintainer I would prefer rpm.
kotapaka 1 year ago