A few questions that i have
 

Firstly, hello all :)

Ok so, i have a few questions and im looking for some advice/tutorials/guides. Im new to Linux in general, ive had slackware 9.1 running on my machine once before, and found it extremely easy to use, i didnt really achieve much, but i got it running smooth and installed a few applications. But i lost the CD's to that, and decided to download a new distro, so i chose Debian, purely because it said i could download the remaining packages that i wanted so it would save me time. Ok, this is my second install, and im still having issues, ive managed to install firefox, sort out the resolution, and a few other minor things. But none of it really makes any sense, i have and can install firefox, but i dont know how it works. In windows you have firefox.exe and on here you have a shellscript, its also located @ /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox - im not sure if thats the equivalent of 'Program files' or what. Im also not familiar with compiling stuff to get it running, and ive tried to get mplayerplug-in installed and its giving my serious stink (having to download gecko sdk, to enable me to view embedded media?) Im just throwing 'apt-get install' around and using Synaptic where i can, but without any sufficent knowledge behind it just so the stuff compiles to get a result. :cry:

So most of you are probably thinking 'google answers all', and well you're probably right, i use google alot! but i can never find anything specific to my problem or some sort of real guide aimed at the less experienced. Im starting to wonder if Linux really isnt a great choice for desktop users, although im not willing to give up on it just yet. So im after some decent reading material, nothing too complex, but enough to cover all of the important things that will aid me to achieve a decent setup and explain why THIS does THAT and WHY (Id also prefer it to be free reading material :p )

Thanks again! Any advice would be dandy!

- Not sure if this really fits in this forum, but ill post it here -

To be honest google is the answer to all. Search here almost all problems you are having someone else has already had. If you don't know how something works, read the docs. man is an excellent source of info too. I'm not sure what your issues are, but there are a bunch of tutorials here as well as all over the web.

I get so annoyed with the whole "I can't make it work so linux isn't ready for the desktop".

There's lot of information out there and others can chip in what they want, but I thought I'd mention a few things. First, if you're using a system with something like apt-get to manage packages, try to use that to install everything and don't worry about compiling programs from source if you don't need to. Second, as far as using programs goes, you might be getting confused with the extensions. In Linux, extensions don't matter at all, rather it only depends whether something is set as executable or not. The executable for firefox is called, well, "firefox", and so on with other programs. When you install a program, the executable gets put in a directory where it can be run--generally one in your PATH (type "echo $PATH") in a shell to see those directories. If you're looking for an equivalent to "Program Files," you might look in /usr/local/bin and /usr/bin. However, all the files for one application are not all put in one directory. Rather, you might have the executable in /usr/local/bin, the documentation in /usr/local/doc, the libraries used to run the program in /usr/local/lib, etc.

Thanks for that info jrdioko.I'm new to linux also.

Potenza may I suggest you try another distro like Mandriva 2006 :D .I found that was the easiest distro for me to learn the linux filesystem.(I still have a long way to go)

My first try at linux 6 months ago was a debian base install.I apt-got everything I could think of and still couldnt get a working desktop.I almost quit...then I tried a "pre-made" distro.Mandrake 10.0.I now have 9 linux and 2 ms operating systems in my box and can configure most any program to behave like I want it to.The choices are endless with linux.

Dont feel alone on the google thing.I usually find what I'm looking for there but on about page 392 result #137,654.The best place I've found to find things applicable to me are here on this forum.

I have a borrowed 10yr old copy of linux unleashed that hasnt been much good to me yet.I am finally learning enough that I can understand it alot better so maybe It'll be of use to me in the future.I've heard linux in a nutshell is a good book but its not free either.

I think after I make my own Puppy Linux live cd successfully I'll try another Debian net install.

Hope this helps.

/usr/lib contains libraries
/usr/bin contains the 'executables' and can be compared with 'program files'; there are other places where 'executables' are installed as well

With regards to firefox, I'm not familiar with it. I'm quite certain that the shellscript is not what you're looking for.
With my knowledge, I would have a look in /usr/bin if there's something related to firefox. If not, I would try locate firefox, whereis firefox or find / -name firefox -print to find the 'executable'.

jrdioko + Wim Sturkenboom thank you for that, cleared up alot! :)

PipeDreams, ive never even heard of that distro myself.. Ill just stick with Debian for now, i remember trying Mandrake 7 or 8 a long time ago, and i found it horrible! :p

I guess i just need todo a bit more reading, first things first, id like to get my nvidia driver installed (already having issues) and mplayplug-in, so i guess ill crack on with those.

bosewicht : "I can't make it work so linux isn't ready for the desktop" - i didnt really say that or mean it.. You can imagine from a beginners view how difficult Linux is. I thought coding fluently in VB was an achievement! but i step out of the plush little windows world, and its really bloody useless