1) Remove Kopete and install Gaim(Gaim has more capabilities).
2) Remove Mozilla and install Mozilla FireFox(Mozilla loads long).
3) Get sound working. Linuxant Riptide worked for Slackware 9.1. I have the RPM but the installer says: missing dependecy pcitool(s?)
4) Be able to mount only certain partitions to a user account that's not root. In my case Win_c2. That would just require fstab? Where is the fstab config?
5) Get a lot of video codecs! (Avi, mov, divx, xvid, ogm, wma, etc.)Where are they? What's the video player on MDK, I've heard Mplayer mentioned before.
6)BitTorrent for Linux!
7) Get a nice firewall. I use Sygate Personal Firewall for Windows which can filter specific programs unlike MDK's general firewall. I think MacOS has an even more detail firewall called Little Snitch.
8)A nice antivirus. I'd like one. I use AVG antivirus from grisoft.com for Windows which is free and updates just as frequently as the corporate edition.
9) Have wine or winex on MDK? Is it already there? What's the difference between those two packages?
10) An OS compatible with many different package types? Are the people at MDK only allowing MDK-RPMs, or can I install packages that come out of tarballs, etc?

Maybe then, MDK and Linux would make me happy like Windows does.

gaim is available with mandrake 10
just type
urpmi gaim (as root)

firefox? yes please

mandrake comes with mplayer and xine and totem
choose "individual package selection" during install and take your pick from the multimedia section

you don't need antivirus

wine is on the cd's
type
urpmi wine


yes you can install from tarballs
./configure
make
su to root
make install

can't answer the others

1. Go for it - The beauty of Linux is that you can customise it
2. See 1
3. You may need to download drivers - see www.alsa-project.org or your sound card manufacturers page
4. /etc/fstab - or whereis fstab
5. See 1 - www.mplayerhq.hu
6. See 1
7. Mandrake has a firewall - or use iptables or firestarter or any of the others
8. Linux is less prone to viruses than Windows - try clamav or f-prot (both free for home users)
9. Wine is free (www.winehq.org) and is geared towards apps (see also www.frankscorner.org), winex costs for the easy to install version. There is a free version - but you mileage may vary. It is geared towards games.
10. Use any rpms, but again, your mileage may vary. You can also use tarballs.

For bittorrent 3.3 (stock -- i.e. not azureus and not bit tornado), you can get the rpm if you add plf to your media list (check out easy urpmi at www.urpmi.org).

As for win32 codecs and the most updated version of xine, that can also be found on plf (although you'll need to get your hands on libmodplug bc mandrake doesn't have it out of the box for some reason)....

Just check out plf and that's pretty much all the media and gaming oriented stuff that you'll need.

This plf thing I don't understand. They don't have a good about page. Many, many Linux sites I have visited don't. What is plf?

Also, I can't run the package manager on my MDK, how will I remove those packages that I wanted?

How is it you can't access the package manager? Anyway, you can always remove any packages with rpm -e [package name] from the terminal... though this is a bit difficult if you have no idea of the name of the package!
As for player, I recommend Kaffeine - kaffeine.sourceforge.net. I agree with you Gaim preference over Kopete.

i think he just wants to talk a little bit and that he also wants linux becoming like his winsucks box.

When I run my package manager, it doesn't come up.

I want to talk? Sure.

Honestly I'd go Mac if it wasn't so expensive. I want a more user-friendly Linux. Vector seems to be what I'm looking for, but it costs money. I try not to buy Microsoft products so I've been looking for alternatives. I do want my Linux OS to do what my Windows can. Linux'll do it nicer and faster for my old computer.

Hmmm.....If your software manager isn't coming up then something is definitely wrong. If I were you, I'd consider re-installing linux.... I say this only because a) it might correct some probs and b) you probably know more now what you're doing then you did when you first installed it...so when you re-install everything, you'll have a more clean set up.

- If your software manage isnt coming up *and* none of the rpmdrake's work (install software and remove software), then you might have installed libMesaGL which I've found to be disatrous when the nvidia drivers are enabled.... so get that package out if you have it in and you have an nvidia card.

- For movie playing, I recommend xine. For audio, xmms.

- PLF = Penguin Liberation Front. On their servers, they carry precompiled packages that tend to be media based (i.e. xine, win32 vid plugins, bittorrent3.3, snes9x [and a front end], other emulators, etc..). So, when you use urpmi and add plf to your media list, everytime you run mandrake update that list will be updated along with the default mandrake packaging lists so that you can install the most recent media oriented stuff on your box. "Wait! Why isn't PLF part of the packaging system by default!?!" you ask. Well, plf also has stuff like libdcss (or is it libdvdcss...i forget...) which can be used on linux for playing dvds but ALSO ripping them. Because this infringes US copywrite laws, the PLF servers are not US based and are not included with Mandrake....or so I've establish after reading from various sources...but who really knows?!

Hope that helped some....

As for media player, I haven't found 1 file that mplayer can not play. Players like Totem and Xine have given me probs.

I would suggest you install the package urpmi.setup, a graphival program that helps setup your software sources (includes plf and contrib), I use it to setup mine.

Firewall- Mandrake has one build in. Mandrake Control centre->Security->fierwall(or somethinglike that)

Wine is on the cds. The difference is that winex is for games.

Antivirus -> Dunno, I've never used one and never been affected by a virus in Linux. Just check at freshmeat.

Hope that helps.

Ya know, if it looks like windoze, acts like windoze, smells like windoze it IS windoze. Hey that's the beauty of Linux/BSD Ya gotta learn, ya gotta read, ya gotta study. Like I was told in a BSD forum once RTFM.

lol

The main thing that keeps linux from being a real competitor to windows is people as close minded as you. I agree that linux is good because it makes you understand how things work, but that doesn't imply it has to be difficult or that it shouldn't learn things from Windows.

1) Which gaim 0.76 package should I download?
Gaim 0.76 (Source) gaim-0.76.tar.bz2 |or| gaim-0.76.tar.gz |or| gaim-0.76-0.src.rpm
How will I unarchive it with command line and how will I compile and install with command line? the directory I'd like the installtion to be installed into /usr/lib/ which is as close to a "Program Files" folder as far as I know.

Here's step-by-step instructions for how to check out and build gaim from CVS. Before you begin, make sure you have libtool, gettext, automake, and autoconf installed. If you normally install gaim from RPM, make sure you also have devel packages of glib 2.0 and gtk 2.0 (but glib and gtk 2.2 are recommended) installed, as well as gcc and gmake. You also need, of course, cvs installed (version 1.11).

This is from the installation instructions on gaim. What packages do I need that I don't have and where can I get them?