Hi Everyone,
Please welcome me as a new Linux enthusiast!
Two separate, and basically unrelated (?) questions...
I installed Red Had 9 from 3 CD's provided in the Linux Bible book that I purchased at B&N.
The install went fairly well, overall, and I've been running this machine on and off for about a week, trying to get my bearings. So far, it's been a mixed experience, but I'm nowhere near giving up or anything!!
1. The version of GNOME that I have is 2.2.0. The latest version, according to the gnome.org, is 2.6.2. I followed the links to download "source"... and ended up at:
ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/desktop/2.6/2.6.2/sources/
But where i expected to see only a few different files, I instead see "a ton" !!!
I have no idea which file(s) to get; I basically want to upgrade my current system to the latest version, and have all the packages I need (I'm not concerned about drive space right now... I have the luxury of using a completely separate test system, which I'll probably wipe at least a couple of times as I clog it up learning stuff...)
Could someone visit the URL i provided, and give me an idea of what I should be getting?
I'm pretty sure that because I don't have the most recent version, I can't get the latest version of Evolution installed....
2. I have my preferences set so that my mouse tracking is at "maximum" but it's still VERY "slow", meaning that I have to physically move the mouse a greater distance than I prefer, just to move from one part of the screen to another. Any fix for this?
3. My system specs:
PIII 450
512MB RAM
25GB Hard Drive
Linux still not really going quite as "fast" as I thought it might... although you could admonish me for using the GUI as a point of comparison. Web browsing seems "okay", usually pretty good... but overall, everything from opening windows to basic directory listings appears more sluggish than I anticipated, given all the comparisons I'd read between Linux and Win(doze). I read that I should consider "compiling from source" but honestly, that's a daunting thing for a newbie, without someone looking over their shoulder (any volunteers?!). If that's what it really takes to get things going "as fast as possible" I'll certainly go the extra mile, but I wanted your opinion first, and to find out it there's a particular guide to getting RH9 going the best it can.
Apologies -- I KNOW this stuff has probably been asked before. PLEASE - avoid the terse, techno-bable answers I sometimes see in the responses here, and remember that I literally know almost nothing about this system... but I am by no means unintelligent. I'm sure with the right analogies being drawn, and some carefully worded information and perhaps step-by-steps, I'll pick this up pretty quickly. Installing firefox was a nightmare, until I tried the download from a different browser from the basic Mozilla that came with RH9... for some reason, the download manager in that app is broken. But I figured it out, and have been doing okay since.
