I am trying to migrate from Win98. Do linux people get into downloading mp3s? Its a pretty big deal in Windows, I mean when I connect to a site, Morpheus for example, it may say that there are currently 500,000 users signed in. So I get to searching for stuff, downloading, and later burning a few CDs. I hardly see anything about this on these linux help boards. Do linux people even care about doing this, or do linux people just boot into windows if they want to do this? I mean, do I have to keep Windows for several more years, or what?

File sharing is just as easy with linux.All mp3 sharing programs basically use peer 2 peer,mainly the GNUtella network. Many mp3 sharing programs use this network, such as qtella (My favorite) and LimeWire (The prettiest, and one of the best, minus the spy ware). You can get qtella from www.qtella.net, and other file sharing utils on sourceforge, or downloads.com. If you want to burn cd's, I strongly recoment reading the Cd Writing howto on linux.davecentral.com, It easily shows you how to set up scsi emulation in linux.I use cdrecord, and some other programs that come with almost every distro to my knowledge, and if you dont just want command line burning, get Eroaster, its a gui for cdrecord, and very easy to use.
I hope this helps.

thanks, stickler. I used limewire for a while in Windows, however, lately I have not been finding many search results with limewire. I have been having better luck with audiognome, which may also be accessing the gnutella network, not sure though. Liked audiogalaxy for awhile, until I found out about AG putting spyware on my computer.
I am only on linux for 2 weeks now and have not installed anything other than from my mandrake 3-CD set. Under Windows, for burning CDs I use Nero 5.5.
If I download a sharing program in linux, is it installed then, or do I go thru some installation steps after its downloaded? Hope thats not a dumb question. I am used to the windows way: download the installation file somewhere, then double-click it and presto... its installed.

Hello agian, and remember no question is dumb.
Anyways, once you download a file, if it is a .rpm, just open up the folder to your home directory in mandrake, and left clink on the file, more than likley mandrake will have a option to install,or just double click on it, im not that familiar with mandrake,but I think it has a rpm package manager - rpm's are just bianarys or sorta like windows .exe's.Anyways, it will proboly open up a window, and install it.I like tarballs over rpm's, though. they have a tar.gz extension usually, if your using kde, just left click on the tar.gz file. and go to archiever. Think of it as a "linux winzip", it will extract all files to your home directory.it will proboly extract a .tar file, then just use archiever agian.(Or just open up a terminal and type gzip -d file.tar.gz | tar -xvf file.tar)after that, open up a terminal like xterm, or somthing simmilar, and read the INSTALL or README file, with either kwrite INSTALL or my favorite editor, pico . Most the time you just run ./configure in the new directory, then make, then make install. Boda bing, boda boom, its installed.The documentation with the app's are usually good enough to guid you through.Hope you stick with linux - its worth it.

Ok, I will check that out tomorrow. Getting late here. Um, so what do you think I should use for my first file sharing download? One that is popular and will get me alot of sucessful search results...

Well,its really all up to you.I would suggest limewire, since your already used to it, and its a .bin file, and installs easily on mandrake with just a ./LimeWireInstall.bin
On the otherhand, there is my favorite, qtella.
Probolem with that is,you gotta manually add servers, because the ones that come with it arnt that reliable, or maybe its just me. just search yahoo.com for gnutella servers, and it only pops up about three sites, but once you get it working, its well worth it.And by the way, you dont need to listen to my opinion, download some, try them out, and get your own favorite

Ok, I am ready to download my first app. If I am in linux.davecentral and then I click on the option to download the xanime tar.gz what happens then? Where does it end up in my system, or will it ask me where I want the file? Will it work with my mandrake 8.1? Sorry for all the questions but Ive been on Windoze for over 10 years

OK, most of the time it saves to your home directory /home/whatever.
Sometimes though, it will save to weird places, the best thing to do, is right
click on the file, and click on "Save File as", and save it into your home
directory, or you can just click on it, and download it, and if you cant find
it, use kfind, it will probably be in your start menu.
After that, if your using kde, or your "Desktop envoroment" more than likely
there is a button, probably shaped like a house on your task bar.It will open up your home folder.
After that,click on the file, or just right click on it, and if its a tar.gz just use archiver. If
its a rpm, just double click and it should install.
If you want to do it the command line way, use
gzip -d file.tar.gz (decompresses the gz part, and leaves you with a .tar file)
then use tar -xvf file.tar to decompress that, then cd into the directory, like
cd xanime, use ls, it will list all the files,like msdos's "dir". then use use
your favorite editor to read the install files. like pico INSTALL.Or with rpm's,
just use rpm -i file.rpm or rpm -Uhv file.rpm,I belive, I always use tarballs.
Have fun

Ok thanks. by the way, I just downloaded xanim (for playing my avi files). It was an rpm file and I downloaded it to a subdir of my home dir. Then I navigated in kde to the place I downloaded it to and then single clicked it. then rpminst started and it went thru an installation process (it prompted me for a couple of other required apps that were on my mandrake CDs). Got message about successful install. I said great, now I will click on an avi file and it will play.... no such luck. KDE asks what program to use to open the file, and I look for xanim, but cant find it. I thought RPMs were auto installs and then you could immediately use the app??!! Anyway, I did a Find File on xanim and got 4 results: the rpm file I downloaded; xanim.spec; xanim2801-ver.patch.bz2; xanim2801.tar.bz2. Do I have to go thru ANOTHER step?? I thought RPMs made life easier...?

Open up a console, like xterm or somthing. Find the movie you want to play, proboly in /home/whateveryourdiris
use xanim movie.avi
or whatever the app is. Most the time when you install a rpm, or anyfile, it wont put a shortcut in your start menu. they copy the main files to the "bin" directorys, so you must open up a console or "shell" to start them, or in kde,use the run command option in the start menu.
Most programs run like this, like xine for example, you install it, then want to play a movie, actually type xine, or xine file.avi, and it will open
Like xanime, or whatever, just type the file for it, it should open.
Hope this helps!

guess I should have realized that an install would not automatically integrate into the desktop enviroment. Too many years on Windoze has blurred my thinking. Well ok. When I do what you say, It just says command not found.

Sometimes install's dont work for various reasons - most the time the help files with the application will be enough to walk you through.
Like I said before, I only had limited expirence with mandrake, but it's suspose to be the most user friendly, im pretty sure it comes with its own video/movie programs, and if you didnt install them, you can always use Software manager to install
Also, look around, there are many,many kinds of programs in linux, just look around till you get one to work, and when you do, let me tell ya, you will feel good hehe.

Back on track to the original post again. Yeah, stickler, I definately will feel good after downloading something & installing it correctly (hasnt happened yet!!). Last night I download the linux Limewire from Davecentral into a subdir of my home dir. Then I right-clicked on it & selected Archiver. It showed an expanded list of files & I said Extract all (is that right?). Didnt do anything after that. Whats next? Oh I also had to download a Java runtime thingy that Limewire Readme told me to. I downloaded that into the same subdir of home that I d/l Limewire to. The downloaded Java runtime file is a .bin file - does that mean I am thru with that or do I need to install the .bin file? So how do I get limewire working now...? Sorry for all the questions, I really know what Im doing in Win... but not this yet!!

limewire is fat slow and rubbish.. mainly cos it uses java when there's no need. you need to make sure you've got a jre installed somewhere if not: java.sun.com and yes the .bin is an install program in itself. run it. well no, don't run it, delete it and get gtk-gnutella instead. faster, easier, less annoying

ok, bluecadet. I wasn't crazy about Limewire under windows, I used it several months after Napster started blocking everything last year. Someone else on these boards said to use qtella. How do I get the one you mentioned? Hope it installs easy, I still haven't downloaded & installed anything successfully yet! I've downloaded several things easily, but then its like, now what...??!