A "new to linux" needs some help with some questions

[swe_kitsune]

I have just installed mandrake now, and I really like it. But I'm a first time linux user, so I would like to know a couple of things:

1, is it possible to acces the files that a windows computer has shared on the network via mandrake?

2, is there any good bittorrent clients for linux out there

3, in there any good programs for listening to music and watching movies on linux? I really enjoyed VLC on windows, but I can't understand how I install it on mandrake.

Well, I would be really happy if I could get some help =) See ya later guys!

Marcus Olsson

[retired1af]

1, is it possible to acces the files that a windows computer has shared on the network via mandrake?

Yup. If it's on the same computer, just mount the drive. If it is a seperate PC, look into using SAMBA.

2, is there any good bittorrent clients for linux out there

Several. Pick and choose which is easiest for you to use.

3, in there any good programs for listening to music and watching movies on linux? I really enjoyed VLC on windows, but I can't understand how I install it on mandrake.

Unfortunately I could never get VLC to work right on my distro either. Xine works very well for movie watching. There are many audio players to choose from as well. Many swear by Kaffiene.

[sabin]

Here are my replies :

- for bittorrent : I personally liked bittornado in windows, and i'm glad to say that there are RPMs for it with Linux too.

- for music : I like Amarok
OK, no cool skins like winamp, but apart from that, it's great. Actually, amarok for me is just an icon in the tray bar, nothing more, except when I manage my playlists. And when I do so, amarok is ten times better than winamp or its equivalent in linux Xmms. Amarok might be compared to iTunes I think, in a way.

- for videos : Kaffeine. Sort of amarok's video version, in terms of quality and user friendliness.

[swe_kitsune]

wow, thanks alot guys, this really helped me out. Finally I can begin to use my computer for "real" =).

[psic]

Just so you have a few more things to pick from

1. Samba. Works very well for accessing files or printers from windows machines.

2. Azureus. Both for windows and linux, nice and clickable

3. Music: xmms is the most common, it can use skins from the older winamp. It has a ton of very usefull plugins (crossfade, alarm, cover browsing...). BMP (beep media player) is almost the same, just a bit newer. I use xmms myself, with a nice skin from some winamp site.

Video: Kaffeine is nice if you use KDE. It is basically a front-end to xine. Mplayer is also very good, though it hasn't worked for me on some sistems.