FAQ:What packaging system does Ark Linux use, and why?
Ark Linux uses a combination of rpm and apt-get.
We picked rpm primarily because it makes it easy to build packages even for people who aren't developers.
We picked apt-get because it's known to work well, and because, unlike most alternatives, it's written in a compiled language, which has a major advantage -- break your python interpreter, and with a package manager written in python, you're lost. With one written in C/C++, you can recover easily ("apt-get reinstall python") as long as core system components like glibc aren't broken beyond repair (at which point most recovery tools wouldn't run anyway).
