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I can't believe I believed the hype. I went through the hell of switching from Mandrake to Ubuntu just because people told me debian based distros were easier for installing programs. They are NOT! It seems like I have to use the 1980s terminal technique more than ever! At least with .rpm files I could just click them and they would go. I'm so pissed off and tired right now. I'm really getting sick of this. I can't use Windows because it draws in viruses and spyware. I can't use Linux because it makes simple tasks insanely difficult. And I can't use Mac because I don't have the money. Uggg... Oh, and gnome is terrible. If you have to use the terminal for everything, it could at least make files easier to access like KDE does and load up from any directory. I hear everyone talking about 'simplicity'. Simplicity is only good for IT professionals and advanced users! The GUI was invented for a reason. Until the Linux community finds a way to bring users more automation (one click install, icons that make themselves, etc), it will never become as popular as Windows - hence, it will not get the kind of software support it wants.
Last edited by Cinematography; 05-24-2005 at 12:22 AM.
I'm really getting sick of this. I can't use Windows because it draws in viruses and spyware. I can't use Linux because it makes simple tasks insanely difficult. And I can't use Mac because I don't have the money.
I think managing packages in Debian (and derivatives) was better than in RPM based distros before apt/synaptic were ported to rpm. Now, I think its just the same, but there is still a lot of hype from some people in the Debian camp who still think think that rpm package management is still has difficult as it was a long time ago. Obviously if you download debs and rpms from third party sites, there is a high risk of facing dependency problems and other headaches associated with trying to resolve those dependencies.
Originally posted by Harishankar Did you use the synaptic package manager? It is a one-click graphical installer that comes with Debian and all Debian based distros.
Or are you just trying to double click files?
If you want help, ask for help.
Not everything I need is in synaptic. For example, Java. It's just as hard to install in Ubuntu as it was for me in Mandrake.
Quote:
Originally posted by Harishankar There are also other OSes like Zeta (next generation BeOS for x86 architecture. But mind you: Zeta is not open source. It is a commercial OS.
So you don't need either Windows or Linux on a x86 machine. You can choose other alternatives as well.
I seriously think I might have to. Thank you for the tip.
Quote:
Originally posted by reddazz Obviously if you download debs and rpms from third party sites, there is a high risk of facing dependency problems and other headaches associated with trying to resolve those dependencies.
I never had this problem with Mandrake. I would click a file, the package manager would get everything else that file needed automatically, and I was done and ready to go. Ubuntu also has a nice package manager, but .deb files suck. When I click them they don't automatically go. I have to type in programmers code. I gave up programming a long time ago. I didn't want to go back to it.
You can also add non-official third party repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list file for packages which are not available in the official repositories.
Moreover, instead of using Ubuntu, you could try Debian Sarge itself. You'd find many more packages in the Debian repositories than in Ubuntu. (more than 15,000 packages!)
I think there is a repository which has DEB packages for Java.
Otherwise you could even download the official Java installer from Sun and run the install script. This should work always!
Last edited by vharishankar; 05-24-2005 at 12:51 AM.
Originally posted by Harishankar You can also add non-official third party repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.
I think there is a site which has DEB packages for Java.
Otherwise you could even download the official Java installer from Sun and run the install script. This should work always!
That's easy. Getting it to work for Firefox is still hard for no reason. .deb distros are no better than .rpm distros. I should have stayed with Mandrake.
Originally posted by Harishankar Yes. Java in Firefox/Mozilla is a bit tricky. This is a distro unspecific problem. I had this problem with RedHat and Fedora as well.
I think I read somewhere how to solve this problem in this site. I forget where it is. I guess a google search should help here.
Try installing Kpackage, with it you click on the .deb file then click install. As long as the dependencies are Ok it will install.
Java is in the repositories try using apt-get.org. With the repositories in my sourcelist I have over 22k packages that I could install. The coolest game is Blob Wars.
I used Kanotix to install Debian Sid, Java came installed and works perfectly with Firefox.
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.4.2_06-b03
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050517 Firefox/1.0.4 (Debian package 1.0.4-2)
If you use Synaptic all you do is click the package you want to install then click apply.
It sounds like you won't be happy with RPM's or .deb files. Good Luck with whatever you find
that works for you.
Originally posted by craigevil
Try installing Kpackage, with it you click on the .deb file then click install. As long as the dependencies are Ok it will install.
I knew I should have went with my gut and got Kubuntu. I guess I could always just install KDE on Ubuntu. Thank you for the suggestion. and links. One of these days I'll find an OS that I can be happy with. Hopefully. Windows came close. Too bad it's a magnet for viruses and other garbage.
I'm sure others will run into a similar problem with a Debian based distro. Maybe this thread could be of some use after all. A lot of these little help tools should be installed by default though.
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