Quote:
Originally Posted by kentuckylodge
Thanks. I am still unsure of what you mean. For a real newbie, could you be a little more specific please.
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Start with your package manager. In your menus, you will find something like "install SW" or "install applications"---or maybe "package manager". The package manager can connect to various servers (called repositories). Typically, you are allowed to add repositories, but I'm not sure exactly how this is done with Fedora.
Try installing some things that show up in the list of availabel SW.
Next, learn to use the package manager in a terminal (command line). In Fedora, I think it is called "yum". You find the manual for this by typing "man yum".
Next, you could try installing an rpm package that is not accessible with you package manager. MANY apps are offered as rpms. If nothing else, just Google using "rpm" or "rpm package". the typical drill is to download something, uncompress it, and then install it. Suppose, you get a download with the extension .tar.gz and it is an rpm format package:
"tar -zxvf <filename>" This will produce a folder full of files ending in .rpm
In this folder, type "rpm -i *.rpm" This installs all files in the folder ending in .rpm
For your Mailwasher example, look at the files after extracting. If there are any files like "configure", Makefile, etc. then it needs to be compiled. Also, try to find a file called README or instructions, etc.
If it does not need to be compiled, there should be an installation script. In the folder (using a terminal) type ./filename (./ tells the shell to run the executable script in the current folder--and not to go looking in the path).
If you get stuck, post the contents of the folder after extracting.
Tell us which of these steps you get stuck on, and we can be more helpful