Completely new to linux... having trouble
 

I have just installed Red hat linux 9 on my laptop. After deciding to learn a new operating system i used my windows pc to download pdf guides along the lines of 'idiots guide to linux' this is where i encountered my problem -

I have downloaded Adobe acrobat reader for linux to read the guides. When i try to install it it says i need Gtk+-2.x.x or higher. I downloaded this and upon trying to install was informed that it needed a version of Glib 2.x.x or higher and something called 'pango' i Downloaded all these things and installed Glib as per instructions given in the readme file, but when i tried to install pango, it still says i need Glib! i thought i had installed this! i am totally new to this and only have an intermediate knowledge of computing at best. can someone PLEASE tell me where i am going wrong?

By installing Red Hat 9. It is seriously out of date now, so problems like you're experiencing are expected. Get a newer distro, it will help you in the long run!

damn, all this distro stuff is a minefield. i tried to download an iso of Suse but i couldnt install it!! i didnt realise red hat was out of date.. can you recommend?

You could try Fedora Core, it's quite similar to Red Hat 9. Other people seem to like Ubuntu, though I've never used it.

so do most linux versions come preloaded with the packages i need? are there older versions on red hat or no versions at all?

Those are common packages, so you should be able to get them with newer distros. Red Hat has them, but they're old versions.

thanks mate i appreciate your input. okay so is whats the best way to change the version im running? i assume i can download what i need!? is it possible to download to this computer then install it or should i download it to my other laptop and burn discs? i've heard mandrake is a good distro? im just trying to get to grips with the o/s in general...

most, if not all will come preloaded with tons of stuff. i've heard great things about ubuntu (linked above) and that it's very user friendly, newbie friendly and has a great support forum...it's also just one cd to install everything to get you going.

the thing about linux is that so many things up updated, almost on a daily basis, so it doesn't take long for things to get old and stale, which isn't saying the distros are obsolete, just a little more difficult to deal with when you need to update libraries and stuff.

you'll get lots of suggestions here on what to use, my advice, try as many as you can. you might even try a few of the live cd's like knoppix and slax.

i used redhat, suse, knoppix and finally settled on slackware, but i still try out different distros from time to time just to see what they're doing :)

i think the 4 most newbie friendly distros seem to be suse, mandriva, ubuntu and mepis...

check out distrowatch

you can read up on all the distros available, and what they offer, whats new, whats good, whats easy :)

***edit!!!

the 5th distro would be fedora core, based on red hat, very popular too

cheers. so does that mean i need to constantly re-install updated versions!??

nope...once you have it installed, it's easily updated through packages...take mere minutes to do that usually. ubuntu and fedora core and suse use update managers, like aptget and yum and yast to do that for you...thats part of what makes them easy to use and user friendly

okay, cool. so whats the best way to install a new distribution? i had in iso of suse but had trouble making it work! can i download an iso to this computer (running red hat 9) and install? or do i need to get the Cd's from somewhere? (i dont have a cd burner on this laptop, but do on another)

great tutorial hereburning iso's

also, you can get them from places like cheapbytes
i've used them in the past, they are quick, and have great stuff...

Yeah you can download and burn the ISOs. Just make sure to "burn image" and not simply copy the iso to the disk.

but (i dont have any cds at the mo!) can i copy the iso to this machine and install from here, or do i have to burn the iso then boot with it?

i'm pretty sure you'd have to burn the iso to a disk, then boot from the disk...