installing programs

**johngrinham** · 12-13-2003

It's been about two months since I decided to try linux, Ive bought two books, totalling about $90, I've bought half a doz magazines, another $60 or more. To date I have not successfully installed more than two programs. One is a firewall (and I'm not connected to the internet with linux) the other is a html editor (and a piece of rubbish). The rest have dependencies which I cannot find. A couple have more than one rpm, the first installs ok, the second may not install due to depenencies, so I try to uninstall the first and it tells me in isnt installed. So I try to install it again and it tells me it is already installed. I try a "rpm -qa -last" which tells me that NOTHING has been installed since the initial install date.(rubbish). But, tonight it hit me what I was doing wrong, the answer is Sooo simple, get rid of this loser of an OS and go back to windows, for all its faults, it works most of the time.

Linux may well be a good OS in the server scene, but it is not going to touch windows on the desktop until you can install and run like you CAN in windows.
It really amazes me that so many people can run windows down while offering a replacement that you can't add programs to. If what you want is in the initial install your'e ok, but alsa doesnt come standard and won't install, xine doesn't come standard and won't install, mplayer doesn't come standard and won't install, ogle doesn't come standard and won't install, ardour doesn't come standard and won't install, I could keep going but as I said, windows works, why keep mucking with somethng that doesn't

ps, thank you to the people in this forum who took the time to try to help, however most of the replies were qualified with "I think this will work" but none of it has done any good in the long run.

**jaguardriver** · 12-13-2003

Sorry to hear this johngrinham...

Being new to Linux as well, I can understand the frustration you have.
A couple of months ago, I turned from a complete Winfreak into a complete Linux-newbie. Some things were hard to find out: such as trying to install a Nvidia driver when you expect a single file who does all the work for you (how did I know what a X86Config file was, or that I had to stop X)... And with Windows, there was only one system, with Linux, many distributions, many questions!!

I did find out (sometimes the hard way) that the information you had with Windows, wasn't available for Linux. Everywhere I kept hearing "Google is your friend". In the end, I scrapped bits of information together and after trying, another try, damm, reinstall, trying... I got where I am now.

I can't decide for you what to do, you have to decide it for yourself, but I hope you get back to Linux in time

Although I still don't fully understand many aspects of it, I'm glad I switched.

**johngrinham** · 12-13-2003

Originally Posted by jaguardriver

"Sorry to hear this johngrinham...
Being new to Linux as well, I can understand the frustration you have."

It's good to hear I'm not the only one with problems, as a matter of interest, which distro do you use, what do you know about gentoo and debian.
I've seen an article that says suse is on the way out, mandrake has already gone, and redhat will go the way of windows, eg users will be tied to RH through the form of updates. I picked redhat because it was the easiest to get, there are very few sources other than magazines here in Australia, and the magazines push redhat. I think I could get a version of debian or gentoo if there was a good chance they would work better than redhat.

**loft306** · 12-13-2003

Whoah nellie, i geuss there is always the one that just can't figure it out, not to say that it didn't take me weeks and alot of messing-up, re-installs,& head banging sessions till i got my brain to start thinking in linux and then things began to run smoothly,and then another few weeks to figure out how to install and run aditional programs manualy(in command line/terminal/shell) though i run suse 8.2 on a laptop which when running it with a gui,KDE or Gnome it runs as close to the simplicty of windoz, actualy i think simpler. it has update like m$ update, then there is yast which is the ultimate controll center for everything from config. files to not worrying about dependicies ect.......So to each there own,and if windoz works for you then go for it, and maby you'll come back for round two with linux somday..........

**loft306** · 12-13-2003

Originally Posted by johngrinham

I've seen an article that says suse is on the way out,

I doubt that seeing as how Novell recently bought it lock, stock, and barrel.
Though it might follow redhat into the enterprise only relm and forget about the desktop.(just a thought)

**johngrinham** · 12-13-2003

Originally Posted by loft306

Whoah nellie, i geuss there is always the one that just can't figure it out, not to say that it didn't take me weeks and alot of messing-up, re-installs,& head banging sessions till i got my brain to start thinking in linux and then things began to run smoothly,and then another few weeks to figure out how to install and run aditional programs manualy(in command line/terminal/shell) though i run suse 8.2 on a laptop which when running it with a gui,KDE or Gnome it runs as close to the simplicty of windoz, actualy i think simpler. it has update like m$ update, then there is yast which is the ultimate controll center for everything from config. files to not worrying about dependicies ect.......So to each there own,and if windoz works for you then go for it, and maby you'll come back for round two with linux somday..........

1: My experience with computers goes back 20 years, if I can't figure it out there are going to be a Damn lot more that can't.
2: I would love to be able to leave windows behind, but if the most popular distribution won't work, how do I find one that will?? Suse is not available to me. Basically, if I can't get it from a magazine cd, then I can't get it

**johngrinham** · 12-13-2003

Originally Posted by loft306

Originally Posted by johngrinham

I've seen an article that says suse is on the way out,

I doubt that seeing as how Novell recently bought it lock, stock, and barrel.
Though it might follow redhat into the enterprise only relm and forget about the desktop.(just a thought)

Just goes to show you can't believe everything you read.
Same as every thing I read about redhat being easy.
What do you know about Debian (I may be able to get a single CD version)
Or even gentoo.

**jasonlambert** · 12-13-2003

As a big debian fan, i can assure you that installing software is the easiest thing in the world on debian.

You want to install something, eg, XMMS? here is how simple it is with debian:

Code:

user@box# su
Password&#58; 
root@box# apt-get install xmms

- DONE.

It will:
1) Go and find the latest version for you
2) Download it for you
3) Calculate dependencies for you
4) Download the dependencies for you
5) Install the dependencies for you
6) Install XMMS for you

And all you typed was:

Code:

user@box# su
Password&#58; 
root@box# apt-get install xmms

I would suggest giving debian a go before quitting linux totally, esp if program installation was the only thing really holding you back.

Jason

**loft306** · 12-13-2003

Originally Posted by johngrinham

1: My experience with computers goes back 20 years, if I can't figure it out there are going to be a Damn lot more that can't.

So like me you have discovered that linux is not quite ready for primetime(the general public) yet, but it is close. as someone here has already siad "this is the year that linux grows up (or blows up)"

I havent tried other distros yet but the books i have are for RH so there is an amount of confusion figuring out what file/directorys are called in suse(the spacific name i mean)...so to grow up i mean that thease distors need to standardise the file tree and a few other things(though being differant is a human condition)ect....end small rant

**Giro** · 12-13-2003

Originally Posted by loft306

I havent tried other distros yet but the books i have are for RH so there is an amount of confusion figuring out what file/directorys are called in suse(the spacific name i mean)...so to grow up i mean that thease distors need to standardise the file tree and a few other things(though being differant is a human condition)ect....end small rant

This is the FSH standard for linux http://www.pathname.com/fhs/ i beleve all big distros use it althogh distros do place some applications if differnt locations it isnt a problem, Also curiouse on your comments if you havent ever used a differnt distro to RH.

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