Okay! I do understand that to install software on linux distros that the main way is to have internet connectivity and to download them via RPM or to manually do this in terminal.

Here's my question: Can you install software by downloading it from another PC via CD and install it in your Linux PC from the CD?

Reason I ask is that I do not have a WLAN setup on my Linux PC yet and would like to install some programs or drivers while I am waiting to get a WLAN adapter that is compatible with Linux. Can you convert drivers or programs to an ISO image that can be installed on Linux?

Another reason is that I have read that Wine can be used in the absence of MS Windows to run certain or a few programs in Linux as well as assist Linux to recognize drivers of hardware that is utilized for MS Windows.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

well you'd not want an iso image, not sure where that comes from, but sure you can install rpm files directly - "rpm -Uvh mypackage.rpm" and job done.

You can install it from rpm packages, however you get them. You may use internet to download or use packages on a cd. But be sure that those are actually binary packages and not the files on a installed system. Another issue you will need to take care is the dependencies of the package you want to install. It could depend on several other packages that you must install.
This is the reason, yum or other package managers are preferred.

My guess somebody is thinking about linux disc images usually being stored as .iso image files. But yeah, unless someone really wants to learn about how to mount disc images in linux with the mount command, it seems near pointless to me too.

Hello Damon-Jager,

I had the same problem as you, so I searched the internet
and found this website:

ftp://kambing.ui.edu/pub/ubuntu-repository/9.10/

In this site there is 7 DVD *.iso file that you can download it
and then use it in your linux offline.
(You should download the ones which are compatible with you system
I mean 32 bit or 64 bit system).

For me it did a good job.

Best regards,
Hassan

i had the same problem as you, a really slow modem connection
i tried all sorts of ways
putting the cd in and getting packages etc
rpm is crap for installing packages as it wont resolve dependencies
unless your online i guess
yum is king
that is from a repo you set up yourself using your installation cd packages directory
copy the contents of the packages directory to /var/www/html/something
add a repo to /etc/yum.conf pointing to the something directory
[something.repo]
baseurl=http://whatever/something
and bobs your uncle
fannies your aunt
service httpd start
elinks to your own repo site
it works a treat
any package installed in less than 30 seconds
kevin

You could get more specific help if you specify which distro you're using. With Ubuntu, for example, you could get .deb packages from a friend's APT cache and install them as local packages. There's no need to fool with an ISO image to do what you want.

Yes, Wine can install many programs designed for Windows. Go to their website to research whether a given program is compatible, or just try it out.