There is literally a page of complicated programming code and instruction just to install Java! What kind of a jerk would make a program so hard to install?! Would it really take that much effort to add some automation to the installation?! Ugg I'm so pissed right now!

Look at this crap!
http://www.java.com/en/download/help...0.xml#download

And why isn't there even a Shockwave for Linux?



Original Post:

Umm... So get the RPM? Your profile shows Mandrake as your distro of choice, and I'm pretty sure Mandrake is an RPM-based distro.

Second, it's not that hard to do from the self extractor either. Just type (or cut-'n-paste) the instructions on the page.

Third, the link you posted is to the Java installer. Not Shockwave. That's Sun's fault, not Macromedia's.

Installing it for Windows is still a lot easier and less confusing. The installer for Linux should / could be just as easy.

Yup, it could be. And I'm sure if there was enough demand for it, they'd package it up in a nice GUI installer. However, the simple RPM/self-extractor model works fine for most users, and especially for people installing Java on X-less servers. It keeps things clean, simple, and to the point. No unnecessary fluff and dependencies.

However, I can see your point. Here's a link to Sun's Web Site Feedback page. Why not drop a note to someone who may actually have some control over the matter?

Ok so are you wanting to install Java? There should be a RPM of Java for Mandrake. There is a RPM on Sun's Java site. "Installation of RPM File" http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/jre/install-linux.html

Or you could try Java Linux.
http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/java-linux-d1.html

There is no Shockwave for Linux.
Shockwave Player and Plugin for Linux Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/linuxswp/petition.html

I finally got Java to work. I'm playing Yahoo games with it now. But still, for an average user, it can be a REAL pain. Even the terminology is complicated.

I certainly will. Thank you for the link.


And thank you for your links and information also, Craigevil.

I'm sorry again for the outburst. Linux has been giving me so much hell. As soon as I get my last problem fixed, I should finally be able to have some peace with this OS. But damn the people who make their programs so damn hard to install!

I made a comment on this very issue in the Interview section on these forums, with Mandrake 10 coming out in 4 CDs you'd think they would include Java & Flash but no you have to pay for that!

Having said that I installed Suse 9.2 from a Linux Format Magazine Disk and that included both Java and Flash in the default set-up. I was very nearly tempted to switch entirely to Suse except that Mandrake has more games.

But in essence I agree with Cinematography, these free plugins shouldn't be that much grief, and I object to Mandrake including them on the pay-for version but not the download version.

floppy

If they're free why would you have to pay for them? I don't understand.

Ah the advantages of using Debian. Both Flash and Java install by simply using apt-get install or by using Synaptic. No compiling or problems installing. Same for Real Player and Adobe and Mplayer.

The issue with the extra disk in Mandrake probably has to do with licensing issues with Sun and Macromedia.

If installing programs with Debian is so much easier, why isn't it more popular? I'm asking because I don't know and fully understand. I've never used Debian before. Can it also handle .rpm packages?

it is extremely popular, both as standard Debian, and as the base for many other distros (ubuntu, knoppix, etc.)

yes you could use .rpms, but the normal practice is to use .deb files, used by default with apt.

Thanks. I was asking because I saw it ranked #6 under some other distros on http://distrowatch.com/ . Ubuntu is #1 though. Too bad it doesn't have KDE. GUI is EVERYTHING to me. I guess I could always try Kubuntu.

slackware's much better about this sort of thing.. you get java and flash if you want them.. right from the cds. debian requires some convincing, meaning, of course, reconfiguration.

rpm is a shitty package format and there's no getting around it. they're only as popular as they are because of redhat's corporate friendliness that no other distro has been able to acheive or cared about.

LOL. You may have a point. I'm download Debian based Kubuntu right now. Hopefully this will be the OS I've been longing for.

While "Debian" is only number 6 at DistroWatch, many distros are Debian based including Ubuntu, Mepis, Linspire, Xandros, Knoppix, Kanotix, Puppy, Feather and many others. Out of the top ten 5 are Debian based distros. "Software distributions based on Debian" http://www.debian.org/misc/children-distros

And we can't leave out: Xebian is an Xbox-enabled version of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It is based on the standard x86 Debian, but the install process - and naturally the bootloader, the kernel and the kernel modules - are all customized for the Xbox."
http://www.xbox-linux.org/Xebian Finally a good use for an Xbox.

Installing Flash consisted of opening a terminal and typing apt-get install flash
Java wasn't much harder. Plus there is always the Synaptic Package Manager.

"Reasons to Choose Debian"
http://www.es.debian.org/intro/why_debian


Slackware is one of the few distros I have yet to try, other than the Slax livecd and that isn't qute the same thing.


Debian simply kicks butt. With the repositories I have setup I have access to over 20k packages.