i have been spoilt by Windows, so i thought i would stand up for myself and brave the world of LINUX (mandrake 9.1), i installed it at the weekend and for my initial impressions I was very impressed indeed.

Of course i am beginning to miss, or cant dam well find a lot of the goodies that Windows has spoilt me with.

I have happily found an alternative to MSN Messenger in GAIM,
I have also got my USB printer working well.

But what about these queries ......

Is there an alternative to KAZAA ???? for downloading music files (for example) ?.

is there an alternative to Windows Media Player ?

how do i download photos from my digital camera (usb again).

can i use my CD Writer to Burn Music CD's etc.

finally (for now) can I view my files in myWindows folder, which is NTFS !!!

thanks for your hopefull help !!!!!

tim

1) there are hundreds of alternatives for kazaa browse throught this link
2) there are also tonnes of media players but i will stick with the most popular and suggest ::
Mplayer
and...
Xine
3) you will have to mount the camera as a usb-storage device and go to the mount point to retrieve the photos..
4)also again tonnes of software, but one of the most popular apps is k3b

hope that takes care of everything

Great another one found the path to glory

I can't answer all the questions, but others will probably fill in the blanks and have alternative's for what I'm about to write down.

mplayer (which I prefer) or xine. Both could be part of your mandrake distro. Just in case I'll give you their url's

-mplayer-
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/
or
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design6/news.html

-xine-
http://xinehq.de/

Yes, I use xcdroast
http://www.xcdroast.org/

Yes, but..........

Last thing I heard reading NTFS type filesystems was save to do, but writing on NTFS type filesystems could be dangerous (coruption of that partition).

It's a kernel setting that needs to be set and I don't know what mandrake's policies are about this. Maybe a mandrake user can help you with this.

viewing NTFS filesystems is doable

you need to be ensure that your kernel has NTFS support enabled. I think that some distros have it disabled by default. Mandy may be one of them.

There are bound to be countless discussions on this board about checking your kenel options and how to add features that you want but dont have. Use the search button Also get to know your best buddies...

http://www.google.co.uk/grphp?q=&ie=...n&meta=&tab=wg
AKA google groups

and

http://www.google.co.uk/linux

Google loves the linux community and we love it in return

I too am a n00b (RH9 was my poision of choice)... so maby Im not one to offer too much insight but I can share some of what I have learned here...

As for P-2-P file sharing [i.e.Kazaa] there are options for example you can run a Win emulator (such as Wine) which should run something as simple as kazaa with out problem but Im not positive since I gave up Kazaa a while ago for IRC. Which brings me to option number 2...IRC... its a little tricky to use some times, and takes atleast one more brain cell to function through, but you gat better results and far less virus/bogus files and porn (unless you like the porn, virus isues and waiting for 2hrs to download something only to find its not what it was named as.. ) Now Im still in the search phase for an IRC client that will allow effective file transfer in linux... and i must admit, to no avail... there are also FTP options for sharing P/2/P....after all Linux shines as a server....

As for the option to windows media player.. there are too many options here actually... such as Xine... and I installed VLC (VideoLAN Client) which was very easy to get set up and so fars plays all my old movies (from avi, mpg mpeg to dat). THe only thing it wont play right out of the wood is WMV files which Im sure you can get some software to convert (im working on that now as well). There is a piece called Mplayer that is touted here... do a search on mplayer and you will find the links and set up info.


Using periferals such a cameras is a matter of having the correct software and yes there is a volume of options there as well .. my recomendation is go to www.google.com/linux and do a search.. you will find one that works im sure of it .. you might even find one that you actually like!
Same goes for the cd-rw ... its a matter of getting the sofware just like windows needs external software to drive most of the features (although there are some built in options in XP but nothing as good as you could buy)

You have to work a little harder for the software, but since most of it is still free (or damn near) it makes it all worth while.. the only thing here is no version of linux assumes your and idiot... like MS does.. and they dont keep you dependant on their product like MS does.. so you have to do the leg work! and find what suits your needs.

So far I havent found ANY thing my XP partition will do that my RH9 partition wont do.... and the only $ ive spent was on a book to get me started.

Start off by enering your camera cdr ect.. in google.com/linux and or here in the search area... and you can try http://freshmeat.net for some options as well as tucows .. there are alot of places to find what your looking for you just gotta get out there and look.
good luck

thank you very much indeed lads that is most helpfull, you have given me a lot of software links to study.

the only thing i dont realy understand yet is how to view or read (not write) my Windows NTFS files,

tim

ps. i am assuming you are all lads (like me) dont see many lasses around here i guess ?.

pps. it seems i am blacklisted at FRESHMEAT, goodness knows why, is the site ok for everyone else ?.

Dude, I'm going to have to advocate my most favorite P2P client now... and it's dcgui

http://dc.ketelhot.de/features.php

It is the MOTHER SUPERIOR of P2P clients . It works on the Direct Connect protocol, and you can find _anything_ you want. And I mean _ANYTHING_ bro. It truely rocks harder than any P2P client including ones (especially ones!) for windows, by far.

and gphoto2 is the thing to search for your camera. their site will tell you if it's supported in linux or not.

Please dont start the lassie thing again man, there are chicks here (some prefer to be called women! ) Use the search button dude.

Now I'm going to explain the NTFS thing vaugely and in laymans terms...

You have a kernel. It is what knows how to operate your computers hardware and software. It has options that can be turned on and off. NTFS support is one of those options. You can find out how to turn it on by searching this board. And by searching on google.

Go and search and read man

one other thing email freshmeat and protest your case! get access, it is a godly site.

go here timmy you can read that relating to NTFS mounting ...

thanks a lot members that is extremely helpfull, cheers.

tim