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Yes, definitely. I personally think this is the single greatest issue with Linux. It would be entirely possible to come up with a good standard, cross distro package manager. Unlike most other things, a package manager really can be "one size fits all". It could be used on all distros anywhere from embedded devices to desktops to servers. With a unified package format that actually works, installing software would be much easier for end users (although I think it's not too bad already), and it would be much easier for developers to package software (especially proprietary developers). This would allow proprietary developers to release just one package that would work on all distros with a specific required ABI so it could continue to work after the ABIs of all the libraries change.

The current package management system is heavily biased toward free software developers (which makes sense). I don't like proprietary software, but I understand that programmers need to make a living, and support for proprietary software will be important for the success of Linux as a desktop operating system.

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