Conary
Really…to reiterate. The future of package management systems like RPM and dpkg is a system like Conary. The company maintaining Conary has recently under gone a name change to Rpath.
Also, in the ramblings of my own mind…I have to wonder about the possibilities of combining Conary with the would be features of Current. An RHN-alike system for a freshly born system management tool. Hmmm…