Okay.. I decided to FINALLY give Linux a try. I love the idea of open-source....

So here I am I installed Mandrake 10.1, and after a couple of weeks playing around, started learning the command line, found I liked the Gnome better then KDE look. Several other things as well...

One thing that I think baffles me, as well as MANY OTHER PEOPLE..Including efficient Linux users (been reading google awhile lol) Why the heck is installing applications in Linux so dang difficult? It makes absolutely no sense. Someone said in a post I was reading that it was for security? Come on thats just sticking up for your favorite operating system. Flat out Linux sucks when it comes to installation. I believe that the idea of customizing ones applications while installing is a great idea. But you don't even customize it...You type ./configure and <HOPE> that all these dependencies are there, if not...you have to search for the ones they need. And when you download those, you need to search for more of the ones you downloaded, because they're missing dependencies. How is that customizing your installation of the application? hmm.. Maybe still new, but it seems that the ./configure does it all for you still. But in a very juvenile way.

I guess part of this is frustration, and literally HOURS of searching for answers. But Linux has a much longer way to go then I thought. Ive been hearing about it, reading about it for years. Just never took the time to install it on a dual-boot system. Maybe many of you remember BeOS? That seemed so much easier to use, but they went out of business.

Some problems maybe someone could help me out with are:

1) URPMI...Will this download all the dependencies(and the dependencies dependencies) automatically? Where can I find the program for this, Ive been having problems finding it on the Internet. Is it already built into mandrake? Is there a guide for setting this up

2) Is there an easy way like an automatic installer somewhere that does all this stuff for you? I'd say 95% of the programs I've found are NOT in that RPM format. They are zipped up in like tar or gz files.

PS...I'm not insulting this wonderful Operating System. Its just there has got to be major improvements in the instillation of applications. And other areas I'm finding.

Hi!

yes:

http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/

yes:

http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/

Read this too:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=45094

Really odd. The ease of installing software is one of the main things that make me stick with Linux.

Do you have a RPM package (you don't find one? check rpmfind.net ) ? just use urpmi or the mandrake GUI for it.

Do you have a source tarball? Well, just unzip it:

if it is a .tar.gz file:

tar -xzvf myfile.tar.gz

if it is a .tar.bz2 file:

tar -xjvf myfile.tar.bz2

Then you type:

./configure

then

make

then you become root and type:

make install


Look also for checkinstall, a way to let the software you built from source appear in your RPM packages database.

Do you want even easier installs? Use Debian or Gentoo.

Yum handles it all for me on FC 4,

yum search - can find programs in any repository i want

yum install <package> - install package

yum remove <package> - uninstall package

yum update <package> - update package

admittadly the program has to have been compiled for my distro and put on the repository but there are very little i haven't found, and in which case i found an alternative.

I hate having to manually find dependencies when installign from source aswell but YUM and google help me there and it's never a bad thign to learn more than one way to skin a cat (say you desperatly need something for work in the morning but all your URPMI mirrors are screwed?)
I can understand your frustrations but i'd suggest sticking with Linux, it grows on you

Debian-based distros, like Debian, Ubuntu, etc use apt-get and synaptic. These will also install all dependencies, as well as there being a vast array of .deb installation files available.

"Installing Software easily on Mandrake/Mandriva"
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...icle&artid=485

"Mandrake installation and configuration tips"
http://www.zebulon.org.uk/urpmi_en.html

"Easy Urpmi"
http://learn.clemsonlinux.org/wiki/M...Adding_Mirrors

"How to use Urpmi & solving dependencies"
http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?s...=0&#entry85503

"Installing Software in GNU/Linux"
http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials...ial-19957.html

How to Learn and Use GNU/Linux
http://www.geocities.com/reverendsky/learninglinux.html


Hope that helps. Actually once you get the hang of it, installing programs in Linux is easier than windows.

That is one of the reasons I choose Debian. With the repositories in my sources.list I have access to over 22000 packages.

Thanks for all your replies and help to this ongoing problem for me.... I guess then you need to just stay away from the software that is compiled in source files? And only do RPMs? Its just Ive found some interesting software that isn't in RPMs, and its an absolute mess installing them. Ive done ./configure and all that, but its always missing something.

Anymore help on that side of things would be nice....On the zipped files, that arnt RPM is there an easier way to install those? I understand that URPMI is for RPMs right? Or does that work for those source files?

I'm a quick learner...Just didn't think it would be this difficult starting out.

I'd have to agree with ethics- Linux definitely grows on you.

However, I've experienced the same sort of problems you have. Seems like it's ten times easier, most of the time, to D/L something on Windoz, and install it by pointing and clicking, w/o all the cute little commands and differentiations from that pattern found in linux. However, I'll be quick to point out, that, unlike both Windoz and MacOS, Linux is not a PRODUCT. No one is trying to inhibit you from doing something on it to increase company profits. The direction of Linux is liberty- to utilize software and computers in a manner that benefits everyone, rather than a company. You won't find that sort of thinking behind any of the not-so-free operating systems....

Plus, you don't have to pay for anything :-D

RPM and DEB files are binary, so they will have dependencies. Sooner or later these package based distributions are going to bite you in your ass. I suggest Gentoo because it makes it very easy to install. Almost everything is installed through compiling which makes it unique for your own system. Gentoo uses a file or script to tell emerge what it requires to compile and install it. IMHO, Gentoo shows what Linux is capable of which is upgrading its programs.