I have spent many years with MS w%$#@ and got fed up, looked at linux before but was waiting for better gui's to get around a little easier;

My question is to install an application is it really necessary to have to know all these command lines or is there some kind of gui script I can use to type in the location and run the installation?

just did not want to have to spend around $15 a month for some package manager.

i would appreciate the help, thanks.

lnxnewb

most distros have some kind ov package management...
redhat has .rpm files, debian has .deb packages..

but lemme tell ya about slackware...

slackware has an excellent package tool called.. well..

pkgtool

with this you can install/uninstall/view any packages (including kernel upgrades - WITH NO COMPILING NECESSARY)
it rocks.. its easy.. and it runs from terminal.. very very intuitive.. you can convert any .rpm file to a .tgz with .. well..

rpm2tgz

and then install it via

pkgtool

wow.. it really is that easy.. i love slackware.

For Debian and RPM based distros, you can manage packages with apt/synaptic. Fedora, Yellow Dog and other Fedora based distros also have yum/gyum, mandrake has urpmi/rpmdrake. other distros have various gui's or text based applications.

Appreciate the help, now it's off to the hcl to see what peripheral equipment is better compatible with linux. Had to trick my Lexmark X63 to get it to even print with the Z22 driver and still cannot use the scan or fax function on my system though either. Oh well probably due for a change anyway.

Thanks again