apt is very different with multiple sources (apt is *fast*). I'll
trust
yum dependency engine over apt's any day, but the fact is pulling hdrs
instead of pulling apt indexes from the same set of sources (ie using
repositories that do both apt & yum) makes one want to cry.
the first time downloading all the headers takes a while, but after
that, provided you're not updating against a constantly rolling
repository, you shouldn't have to download all that much, only the
changes.
Against rawhide headers don't work as well, but against a stable +
updates configuration (which is the most common imo) the headers aren't
shabby.
the current rawhide configuration is also a pain b/c it's one repository
for all archs, so you have to stew through a lot of crap.
There is work being done to change how these things are handled in the
future and to make the format for the metadata more extensible than
either the yum or current apt metadata formats.
-sv