> Even Node's package manager supports [parallel versions of dependencies]
I feel like your emphasis is backwards.
It's not surprising that NodeJS, a new project, has solved some of these problems. NPM has the luxury of decades of experience from dozens of linux package managers and package managers from other languages. Plus, they're not tied to the legacy use cases the same way that (e.g.) apt is.
Do you have a link that would educate me about some of these problems? Package management interests me because I might find myself developing a package manager in the near future, but I don't know much about it.
Not supporting multiple versions of the same software is something that I identified as a problem though.
I don't recommend developing a package manager until you have done a lot of research. Its a field with non trivial problems and a lot of existing experience, and a lot of implementations that may well solve your issues.
I don't think it's surprising either, I just hope that Linux will solve the problem too. I guess I used the 'even' rhetoric because if Node could solve it, Linux (a much larger and better financed software ecosystem) should too.
I feel like your emphasis is backwards.
It's not surprising that NodeJS, a new project, has solved some of these problems. NPM has the luxury of decades of experience from dozens of linux package managers and package managers from other languages. Plus, they're not tied to the legacy use cases the same way that (e.g.) apt is.