I was having a bunch of trouble today importing my old MySQL amarok database into the new nightly version of amarok I installed. The Amarok Wiki had a great section on how to convert a MySQL Amarok collection into an SQLlite one. This was the key to importing my old 1.4 collection into the new 2.2 nightly version of Amarok.
Zeroinstall is my new friend. It’s a package manager that’s decentralized, and can be used on machines where users need applications, but don’t know how to compile (or are unwilling to). Installing applications happens in the home directory, and once a program is run once, it is stored in the home directory for later use. All packages can be signed with GPG keys, and the packaging GUI is amazingly awesome.