ive just installed a version of mandrake 9.1 on a fresh hard drive.
the installation went well but i have few questions that somebody may answer as i am a newbie at linux.
1 will my programs that i used with windows work with linux?
2 when i try and open a program up it asks me wich program to use but i have no idea?
3 what are the scrips used for and when will i have to use them?
thanks

1) In general, answer to that is no. Although some window programs can be made to work with linux using wine or winex:
www.winehq.com/

2) {QUOTE} when i try and open a program up it asks me wich program to use but i have no idea? {/QUOTE] which program are u talking about? your question isnt clear.

3)Scripts are used for many different things example, to use dialup internet, some people use dialup scripts etc. No, you wont have to use them unless you want to. I have been using linux for more than 6 months and I have never written any script.

Welcome to LinuxQuestions!

As Jatt_thugz said,

1) no in general - erm, there are some "cross platform" things that have been ported to linux and work pretty much the same under linux as they do under windows. Realplayer for example.

There is also some stuff that has "equivalent" facilities, but different names. That would be like Winamp in windows and XMMS in linux.

2) That sounds like the same dialogue box that you get under window when it cant decide which app to use to open a specific file (though sometimes windows gives you the "unknown file extension" dialogue). I think it means that mandrake cant find the "executable file". You could try looking at applications>editors>kwrite (presumably you are using the default graphic interface of KDE offered by mandrake). This is only a text editor, but may give you a clue about the "how's and where's" of running a particular application i.e. whether you need to look for a readme or something.

3) Scripts - don't have much of a clue about them. In about 2 years of meddling with linux, the only time that I recall haveing to do anything was recently when I installed "America's Army" from a coverdisc, they had used an install.sh shell script and I just had to work out how to run it for the installation.

regards

John