Newbie needing some simple guidance
 

Complete newbie knows absolutely nothing about what I have gotten myself into but, I like it so far. I do need help in many areas, however, this seems to be a tricky one. what, where, and how do I download the stuff I need to do what I need to do. Bet your wondering if I could get any more vague. I need IE6, but I can't install it, says I need to md but don't know where, installed adobe but it says I need a HTML rendering library (yea like I know what that is) I got this thing called wine but don't know what it does, didn't get IE6 but it put some stuff in here. Thought I got KDE but can't find it. Don't want any games but I can find them everywhere. OK lets get simple... tell me the basics of what I might need and how I can get them please. Is there an install guide as to putting these things in, finding out that they do not install themselves.

Just use the Linux versions of those programs. Also, use Firefox instead of IE; it's ALOT better/safer/etc. If you need IE, there IS a program out there that is compatible, don't remember the name of it though. You may try IEs4Linux as well (search "IE for Linux" in Google)

Cheers!
mbecraft

Ok, take a deep breath. Linux isn't Windows. First of all, what distribution are you using?

IE is a Windows program, let it go. Firefox and Seamonkey are both excellent browsers.

How you install various applications and their supporting apps and libraries depends on what distro you have. Various distros have different package managers and installation approaches so the first thing is to determine what you're working with.

There is a learning curve here but if you take it slow and take the time to do a bit of reading you'll find everything you need to do whatever you need to do.

Thank you for the post. That is the one I got and after installing it there was an error
Installing IE 6
Initializing
Creating Wine Prefix
Extracting CAB files
Installing IE 6
Installing DCOM98
Installing TTF Fonts
Installing ActiveX MFC42
/home/richard/.ies4linux/downloads/mfc42.cab: No such file or directory
An error occured when trying to cabextract some files.
I thought i followed the directions correctly from http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/...tion:PCLinuxOS but I have been wrong before

Unfortunately I must have IE6 or better with most of the plug-ins for one site only. When I get the hang of all this I will install XP on a virtual box and use IE there but I don’t want to hose my system up as new as I am and I think that will do it. I also have adobe downloaded but it didn’t load right, so it’s not working either. I could go on and on but this is a good start if you can help.

Because of some problems installing I went with PCLinuxOS and am learning as much as I can, but eventually I want to go to Ubuntu –gnome (I think that is how to describe it) already bought the DVD install and some of the books, but right now learning is the game plan. I am in no rush, if I am going to do it I want to do it right.

Thank you for posting

PCLinuxOS is a decent distro. I tested it for several weeks and found it to be just fine.

Please explain exactly what site you have to have IE for? I have yet to find a site that won't work with Firefox/Seamonkey using the proper plugins or configuration. Well ok, the occasional media site.

An online college course that requires video class rooms. I have talked to the techies there and they say IE6 or better is required (that don’t mean something wont work, just they don’t know it will)

If for some strange reason Firefox isn't working for ya try opera for linux, you can download it straight from their website, and I believe it may actually be in the pclos repo as well........Good luck.

On a Linux box, I will almost always have at least Opera, Firefox (/iceweasel, in some cases) an konqueror available. Opera is my favourite and I would argue that any of the three is miles better than IE6. Miles and miles. (Konq is a combined file manager / browser and you may or may not like that - its still ok as a browser, but some sites do look a bit unsophisticated through it if the font choice is poor.)

The first place you look for new software to install is in a package manager. With a windows background, this probably isn't what you would expect, but it does, in the end, make life much easier. By default (as supplied by a distro) the package manage will be set up to look in certain repositories for 'packages' (software) to install; to get everything you might have to enable other repositories - a lot of Linux users are 'purists' and will only use software that is genuinely Open Source, others, me included, are more pragmatic and will use selected proprietary apps, given certain conditions (like I trust the company...you'll be able to guess one enormous software suplier that doesn't come close. Doesn't even come close to coming close.)

So, many distros come as default with only the minimal (or completely pure) repositories enabled, but it is usually a simple process of clicking on 'universe', 'multiverse' or 'proprietary/restricted software' repositories in the package manager to do something about it, if you want to.

Then, if you want something that is in the list of available packages, just click and you will receive (assuming that you are online)!

Now, as you don't know whether your videos will work, why not try in the various browsers that you have available? Will it do any harm? (Online banking sites are a different story...)

You may well get a message about a codec or a plug-in not being available. In theory, this is as simple as searching in the package manager and clicking again, but there may be some wrinkles with getting, say, a Netscape plug-in to work with firefox. If you get to that point, you'll probably have to ask again.

I believe PCLinuxOS uses APT for package management (same as ubuntu). Do you have a graphical front-end to it there? Ubuntu's is called Synaptic if I remember correctly, maybe PCLinuxOS uses the same one? Never tried PCLinuxOS, but I believe it is a good distro.

Anyway find the graphical package manager and use it to install Firefox and Opera (far easier than messing about with wine and IE). Chances are one of them will work if you have the correct plugins to go with it. Only if you can't get them to work, try that "IE for linux" stuff mentioned above, after all, that solution will be more complicated to get working.

If you haven't figured it out yet, KDE is your graphical Linux desktop, so that's probably what you are using already ;) E.g. the menues on your desktop is part of KDE. By the way, look for the package manager software under System->Administration in the menu (I am guessing your KDE will be set up to have something similar to that somewhere...).

Forget IE forever
 

PCLinuxOS contains Firefox, Opera and Konqueror by default. You don't need to install them seperately. They are all excellent browsers - secure, stable and fast.
You'll never need the bloated colander that is Internet Exploiter ever again. Be glad and rejoice!

WOW I cannot believe the overwhelming information I am getting here. keep it coming, this is all good stuff. I bet I could spend a week just try to figure out what half the stuff I already have does. as for the web browser. I can't find Opera on my system but there is so much stuff to look through I may just not know where to look, right now I am using Kong and am happy with it, I have tried Fire Fox a few times and guess I'm just not ready for it (runs me nuts)

I am so much happier with everything than with win I wounder why I have spent SO MUCH MONEY buying all that software. I have built so many windows based systems and bough so many of their operating systems and software to stay within their legal limitations it just isn't funny. what a shame...
I hope i can learn all this .

I really like this Abi-Word word processor does anyone know if it is compatible with Office Professional 2003 or 2007 I use both of them and the college requires at least 2003. They also require Excel and PowerPoint are they in here too?

Although the change from windows to Linux will be challenging I can already see that I will be mush more satisfied.
Thank you for your replies and advice. I look forward to all you can offer

Well I guess I am stuck with Fire Fox, it is the only one that will open the college site. all the plug-ins seem to be working except adobe reader, error says " Unable to find the HTML rendering library (libgtkembedmoz). Please specify the folder location in Edit->Preferences->Internet." if all this makes since to anyone Please let me know what it means

There are two situations where a site may be "IE" specific.

1. Because IE breaks LOTS of standard rules in its rendering process, many sites apply work-arounds to make the site look/work right. These workarounds may not work in non-MS browsers that actually work correctly. This problem exists if the site developers assume that the whole world uses IE, or they want to force their users into IE.

2. Some sites actually check the browser signature and disable it if it is not IE, even though it might work otherwise. In that case it is possible to configue Firefox to pretend like it is IE to fool the webserver into thinking it is ok to deliver the content. The formatting might still be a little funky but the site should work. I don't know offhand what the config changes are, and I'm not at a FF browser. Maybe someone will chime in with the technique. I believe that Opera also has this capability.

HTH

Nice to know. Thank you
I just spoke with Tech support on the college site, hey say the firefox will not work on their site but it does. konqureor and epiphany will not make it past the log in. I tested the plug ins and adobe is the only one I am having a problem with now in firefox. when I try to extract it is listen in gray. If this make any since it is located /./opt/ I click extract and it is listed there but I cannot click it (guess because it is not a folder???)