newbie: looking for easy to install distro that I can install new programs on easily

Cogar · 12-08-2005, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m.r.bob

---snip---
I'm going to try the 1 cd version I mentioned before I try 10.
I will try both though.

No problem. Good luck.

Let me add one more thing. If the hardware is newer than the Linux version, there is a chance the hardware will not be supported. Therefore, if everything works except for your brand new wireless card (for example), that would be expected.

timb5163 · 12-08-2005, 09:30 PM

I would like to throw a distro in that I just installed and I was really impressed with. PClinuxOS. They say it is in beta still but it sure does everything I need for being betaware. You can do a live CD version of it and if you like it you can install from the desktop. I haven't seen it talked about much but I think it will get some attention.

Timb

m.r.bob · 12-09-2005, 04:24 PM

Ok, I've installed SUSE, and it's pretty good.
I might not need another OS to find what I really want. What I really want is a easy to use RPM manager, one with a GUI.
I'm fine with command line, and I was able to attempt to install the latest FireFox package, but then I ran into some dependency issues.

Cogar · 12-09-2005, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m.r.bob

Ok, I've installed SUSE, and it's pretty good.
I might not need another OS to find what I really want. What I really want is a easy to use RPM manager, one with a GUI.
I'm fine with command line, and I was able to attempt to install the latest FireFox package, but then I ran into some dependency issues.

The package management tool in SUSE is YaST or YaST2 (I forgot what the tool itself is called exactly.) Anyway, you sometimes have to wait a little while for the packages to make it into the repositories. You should be able to update everything to at least Firefox 1.0.7 through YOU (YaST Online Update). It is a relatively painless way of adding updates and patches and there is a button to click to check dependencies.

timb5163 · 12-09-2005, 07:26 PM

m.r. Bob

Based on what you say you are looking for I would really give this PClinuxOS a shot. It meets everything you are looking for and it has a lot of stuff built in already and updating is simple. I have installed Linspire,Fedora, Suse, Mandriva, Knoppix and Ubuntu and this one has been the easiest one yet and I am a newbie also.

Timb

m.r.bob · 12-09-2005, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cogar

The package management tool in SUSE is YaST or YaST2 (I forgot what the tool itself is called exactly.) Anyway, you sometimes have to wait a little while for the packages to make it into the repositories. You should be able to update everything to at least Firefox 1.0.7 through YOU (YaST Online Update). It is a relatively painless way of adding updates and patches and there is a button to click to check dependencies.

Tried it, didn't work. Maybe it's becuase your using 10.0

bandersnatchy · 12-18-2005, 07:09 PM

Mr Bob

There is a point+click installer. It's called klik.

Kanotix comes with klik. There is also a version of SUSE that comes with klik. klik can be installed on some other Linux flavors with varying levels of success.

If Kanotix is run using the default live configuration, then klik packages make no permanent change - a cmg file is downloaded to the desktop (which is sitting in RAM) and runs from there. There are ways to save it, if you like it. If you don't take specific steps to save it, then the package and all changes made by it are gone upon reboot.

There are various ways of running Kanotix. We run it live, but it is designed to be easily installed on a hard drive.

There are problems with klik.

Philosophical problem: Nothing should be this easy.

Practical problems:
- Selection is limited.
- Only 75% of the software works for me.
- Program configuration files may be an issue.

However, if you like elegant but powerful things that make life more fun, you probably will like klik.

Sorry for late response.

stimpsonjcat · 12-19-2005, 05:59 AM

I just installed SUSE 10.0 OSS edition on one of my desktops. YaSR looks quite pretty and there are some very nice GUI configuration utilities, e.g. for editing GRUBs menu.lst. It came with Firefox v. 1.0.7 but SUSE offers a 1.5. RPM here:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/mozilla/firefox/1.5/
choose your architecture and version

download the file and right-click >> Actions >> Install with YAST

here's a good introduction for SUSE newbies (like me):

www.suseroot.com

stimpy

nintendofreq · 02-15-2006, 04:44 PM

I am trying to build a very simple bash script that can compile the source on any distro. Does anyone know of any? You may not need a whole new distro, maybe just a little script to compile things

-Joe

nintendofreq · 02-15-2006, 04:51 PM

Also, PCLinuxOS is an excellent distro

nintendofreq · 02-15-2006, 05:04 PM

Here, this is the script. Dont know if it works yet...I'm currently on a Windows pc...

Code:

#! /bin/bash
echo  "This is the AUTOTAR source-code installer for Linux"
echo -n "Enter the whole filename (with tar.gz): "
read -e FILE
tar xvzf $FILE
echo -n "What is the newly created directory? (just look): "
read -e DIR
cd $DIR
./configure
make
make-install
make clean

#This SHOULD install a tar.gz archive on any Linux system with a C/C++ Compiler
#Written by Joe Pieper

#version 0.3

Copy it into a file called autotar.sh, put the file in the tar's directory, and, as root, run it from Bash.