I would take this a step further and recommend to any first-timer that you
purchase an official distribution, Suse, Caldera, Mandrake, Red Hat,
Slackware (the list goes on). For the few dollars of outlay it can save a
lot of headaches that might otherwise turn you off the O/S.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rodrigo Moya [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2000 11:26 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Downloading/Installing programs
>
> Michael A Lane wrote:
>
> New to Linux, use to Windows. I've purchased several books and
> each of them have strong points in using Linux, but each one of them are
> weak in explaining step by step downloading, installing the software so
> that it can be launched from the desk top. I look for programs which have
> the "rpm" in the command line as well as "tz", "gz". I download them into
> my home directory, which is probably not a good idea, then I use the "tar
> xzvf {program name}. It opens and creates a new file, but that is as far
> as I know. I know there is a lot more to it but need help or better yet
> instructions on how to proceed.
>
>
> I suggest you to use RPM-format files, since they install the software,
> configure it, so that it's ready to run (with a few exceptions where you
> have to manually configure things). For installing these files:
>
> rpm -i {program-name}.rpm -> to install, or
> rpm -Uvh {program-name}.rpm -> to upgrade
>
> Tarballs (*.tgz or *.tar.gz) usually contain source code, so apart from
> unpacking the file, you must compile the software. For this, it's usually
> like this:
>
> tar xvzf {program-name}.tar.gz
> cd {program-name}
> ./configure
> make
> make install
>
> Cheers
--
To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe"
as the Subject.
