Hi! I would like to know the difference between Mandriva Enhanced RPMs and cooker. AFAIK, cooker overhauls the entire system. That is, it upgrades all libraries and packges so it is not advisable to install individual packages from cooker to a stable release since they have different compiled libraries. How about with MDE? Is it safe to install an individual package (inc. deps, of course) over a corresponding stable release? Or do I need to upgrade the whole release itself?

Yes it´s safe to install MDE rpms on a Mandriva relase. They are build for that release. Cooker is the devel environment of Mandriva and it´s not advisible to use cooker rpms on a stable release.

Well, I wouldn't call that "safe" - the guys are working hard and not all of the dependent packages may be available at every given moment of time. I experienced a few things broke (like xmms sound system in amarok, for instance). But I am adventurous (on my spare non-production PC) so can live with a risk of smth breaking at the expense of the bleeding edge experience ;-)

Wrong, all dependencies are available like for example libmusepack that u dont see them in cooker for example, and this is another "must"/advantage to cooker, since we put more options/give more enhacements.

I think that SOS rpms are backports from cooker, so you could look at them if you can't find what you want from Ze/Thac.

I've yet to have problems with using either MDE or SOS packages, but your mileage may vary.

Dont mix MDE with other packages since MDE follow its mandriva correct mandriva packaging policy, remember that even mandriva doesnt follow mandriva packaging policy, so some packages were renamed and obsoleted.

I have foud many users reporting problems and wen i go see, i see that there exist MDE ad mandriva versions and releases rpms mixed and then problems come, remember we are allways one step ahed from cooker.