You egg-heads think everyone already knows this crap!

How is anyone supposed to learn this stuff when you wirte it like a rocket manual

All I want to do is install CDRECORD, and the instructions are so compicated that I do exactly what it says and it still won't install!

And I 've had this problem with every thing I've tried to install...

This all started when I tried to install the OSS drivers and it wiped out my sound. So I tried to reinstall my sound, but nothing. So I figured I do a ppart on the hard drive and install Windows and Linux. But I can't even get that to work.

And then when someone asks for help, you give them a bunch of reasons and no solutions.

You all need to package this stuff so it will install with the click of a mouse.

I'm not a programmer and I don't want to be.

I've had it... I'm going back to Windows and that's it!

At least I'll be able to install the programs I want to run without going into c++ or dos or some other programming language.

Yeah! If you want to run Linux, get Slackware. We already
have cdrecord and alsa for sound.
Someone "pulled the wool over your eyes" with FC2...

But if you don't come back, we'll pray that you survive "the darkside!"

What is Slackware, what does it do, how do you impliment it & where do you get it?

And are you saying that I should unistall FC2 and run Slackware only? Is it an OS?

Also, I do not have a floppy dirve... I can't do a boot install of Windows from the CD drive now, because FC2 acts like it doesn't exist. and I can't get CDrecord to install so that I can create a cd of PPart and start over. So I can't burn the Slackware.ISOs onto disc and install it...

So now what?

In all fareness though, FC2 comes with ALSA for sound as well, It also installed and set up my Broadband connection for me. I didn't have to do an thing. It also comes packaged with a TV tuner software that immediately noticed and installed my TV tuner card and I was able to watch movies from my VCR...

Other than this stupid sound issue (which was probably my fualt) It's been great Still a thousand times better than Wind-blows

If you want click-and-run software, use something like SuSE or Debian.

Fedora, like Red Hat, is really aimed at people like system administrators who either understand the inner working of their operating system, or at least want to learn how it works. It's tweakable at a very low level, which is what you want when running on big, heavily-loaded servers and the like. But that doesn't always translate into click and run software.

The easiest ways to install software are a) use the package manager from your distribution, or b) go to www.rpmfind.net, download an rpm for the software you're wanting, and install it with

The oldest and best GNU/Linux distribution available.
It does whatever you tell it to do.
You don't implement it, you install it, run it, and learn it.
You get Slack here -> http://www.slackware.com/getslack/ - you'll
need slackware-10.0-install-d1.iso and slackware-10.0-install-d2.iso
After you burn those images to CDs, print the file Slackware-HOWTO
off the first CD. Read it and follow the directions.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. If you want to learn Linux.
If you just want another click-click use my mouse and not my brain like Windoze,
then get something like Mandrake Linux and stay oblivious to what's happening.

But before you do anything, let me ask you a few questions:

Why are you here at LQ?

Why are you interested in Linux in the first place?

Wasn't Windoze good enough for your needs?

I'm no programmer, and learning Linux is slow. But so was learning
that piece of trash called Windoze. Read the next to last statement in my
sig...

Oh, well. If you want to be a Bill Gates braindead groupie go ahead.............

Chinaman,

You have some good points there!!!

I'm here because I need information...

I've gone to Linux becuase, as you said, Windows sucks and I'm tried of dealing with lousy memory allocation and crashes. And I know Linux is as stable as it get's.

But I need music creation software that let's me do midi & audio multitrack recording and editing and I can't find anything for linux that will simply install without a bunch of hassel!

But I will try Slackware before I give up completely. I must say that I really like linux, and I really dispise Windows and Bill!

I guess I just need some help and I was getting frustrated. Please forgive me for sounding harsh. I'm just new at this and don't really know my options and so it made me mad that I had no control.

What do you suggest for my home music studio? Is Slackware workable on that level?

rjlee,

Thanks for the info on rpm files. I think that may help... I'll post later and let you know if I find what I need.

I've used *every* version of Windows and they were all a headache.

If you want a purely point and click interface, you need to go back to Windows. If you really want to do something with Linux you're going to eventually have to use the command line. You will need patience and the willingness to learn.

320bm,

You have a point with your statement, but telling someone to go ahead and leave and telling them that they're a Bill Gates braindead groupie in not the way to encourage people to continue on.

I think you should grow up a bit before you post any more comments to people looking for answers and not insults.

darthtux,

Thank you for your input... I understand... I really do want to be a Linux user, but I also need something I can use at the moment. I really don't want to use Windows any more, so I'm looking for options...

But I need to be able to install Music software and use it now, not six months from now.

I had considered going to a dual boot with windows as my music suite and Linux for everything else. That wouldn't be blasphemy would it.

Ok, ram007 is clearly narked about his attempts to probably compile programs when he's actually got a Package based distro of linux installed, and maybe no-one's pointed this out to him yet. But there's no need for all the lame stuff about "M$" etc. Yeah we all feel linux is better but we can use it. For others, msot dont know of it and some cant understand the concepts easily.

ram007, Fedora is based on RedHat, as are a few other distros. My favourite is a very newbie friendly distro, without being an attempt at an XP clone like some other non-free distros. MandrakeLinux is possibly the easiest distro to install and use, with many examples of the nice graphical installer and usage walkthroughs. Plus the urpmi system removes the hassle of package dependency hell which used to plague most distros.
You can download the burn the cds, or buy the packs to get more apps in one go, and even but support services like a taskbar applet that notifies you when updates are available if you dont want to manually check and install them every so often.

I suggest you try the Mandrake 10.0 Official or 10.1 Community release and see just how easy linux can be to install and use from the get-go. Also remember Easy Urpmi for adding more point and click software install sources.

So then Mandrake is more user-freindly than Slackware?

What about music programs, does it come with anything good?

Also, FC2 automatically installed and setup my LAN connection and I was on-line in no time...

Will Mandrake do that for me also?

Slackware is a source based distro. You download packages but they're not compiled yet. I believe the system's almost as painless as Mandrake's urpmi but you do have their automated compiling stage to consider, whereas .rpms are usually compiled for a lowest common denominator processor type, eg Pentium2 equivalents and above.

Mandrake is spawned from RedHat, like Fedora, and has similar easy of install. I would be suprised if your LAN wasnt detected in Mdk if it was in FC.

You can browse the MandrakeLinux and MandrakeSoft sites to see the exact features and packages that come with the various install sets. There's a full suite of the best linux apps, as well as commercial ones with the PowerPacks. You can also try the MandrakeMove liveCD if you wanna test Mandrake without installing it on a harddrive.

Ok, just one more question,

Is there a gui for CDRecord. I just realized it's a command line tool and I have no idea how to use it to burn anything, let alone a bootable ISO dic for any OS