Showing messages 1 through 5 of 5.

• Individual Application Installation
  2003-11-14 07:59:26  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  Someone always, always brings this up. All I can say is that you must be using a severely dated distro. Software installation is different to Windows, you can't just download any rpm or binary, but it is now longer how you describe.
  
  It's still not great, but it's no longer nearly as severe a problem as it was. My advice is to use a distro that supports apt, (eg Debian, RH, SuSE).
  
  Standard libraries may seem like a good solution, but they would reduce some of the aspects that make Linux great. Anyway, good luck trying to co-ordinate all the different distros to use a standard set of libraries. Solutions are being developed. Have you heard of Autopackage?
  
  Anyway I don't see this as such a big barrier, most desktop users never install software. And when they do it's a big fancy well known package that will probably come with a noarch rpm (Flash(tm) anyone?)

• Individual Application Installation
  2003-11-14 03:55:37  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  'I really want to switch and stick with linux, but. as bad as "dll hell" (witch isn't really even an issue in recent years) is, the dependancy problem in linux is far and away a worse problem.'
  
  This is just plain wrong. Debian solved the dependency problem some time ago. As for the "DLL hell", last time I looked, the problem had been swept under the carpet, not solved. What's broken is Microsoft's specification of how DLL selection is supposed to work. Apps which require different versions of a DLL can coexist only if you don't try to run them concurrently.

• Individual Application Installation
  2003-11-13 23:48:11  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  For the less technically inclined: Mandrake's URPMI handles all dependencies. Emerge on Gentoo works like a charm. Debian's apt-get is so good, it's being ported all over the place. All of the above have thousands of programs at your disposal. There are even nice GUI tools for them. The dependancy issue is such an old (and pretty much solved) issue. If you want to use oddball programs (rpm's or tarballs) from Sourceforge or Freshmeat, do it. Learn something.
  How many MS OS's have the option to fire up a GUI installer and then allow you to pick from said thousands of programs?
• Individual Application Installation
  2003-11-14 05:03:26  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  I recently upgraded to Mandrakes 9.2 and tried to burn an ISO image to CD, my old application, K3, which worked so well, would not work. So I go and get an RPM for Eroaster from the Mandrake site specifically for Mandrake and using their GUI interface I tell it to install. Not a chance, it did not work. I very rarely go to windows anymore, but I like to tinker with computers, others do not.
  I am sorry you think all the install problems are solved, but they are most definately not solved. I want a windows program, I double click the install icon, or just put in the CD and 9 out of 10 times it works. Linux I would have to say that 5 out of 10 times it works. 50% is a failing mark in any book.
  Linux has a long way to go before it ready for prime time and not just due to application installation problems.
• Individual Application Installation
  2003-11-14 07:41:49  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  1) Go here http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/ and set up your urpmi sources.
  2) Type urpmi nameofpackage, i.e., urpmi evolution at the command line or go to Mandrake's control center if you prefer it to do in a GUI.
  
  It works like a charm.
  
  Finally, fire up knode and go to the mandrake newsgroup. It's a friendly place where everyone is welcome. And the mandrakeforums at http://www.mandrakeusers.org and linuxinstall.org are also great.
  
  Welcome aboard.