Well, I just took the dive and installed the Red Hat 9 distribution; it's running fine. However, I have almost zero experience using linux except for the minimal time I've spent in the unix labs at nc state univ.
I want to use the gcc compiler but everytime I use the make command I get the response :

make[1]: Entering directory `/root/ROM/dist/src'
gcc -c -O -g3 -Wall -Wuninitialized -DSMAUG act_comm.c
make[1]: gcc: Command not found
make[1]: *** [act_comm.o] Error 127
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/ROM/dist/src'
make: *** [all] Error 2

What this error says to me is that it cannot find the GCC program. Now, my GCC program is located in /usr/bin/gcc296 (i think ) Do I have to edit my .bash_profile in order to allow me to use the compiler? Is there any way I can get this program to compile?

Thanks
Greg

it seems like gcc is behaving badly, look for the gcc rpm on your redhat disk or download it and install it this may fix your problem

Well if I enter the command

/usr/bin/gcc296 act_comm.c

then it seems to compile that file however, I need it to use the Makefile that is in the directory and compile all of the .c files.....

Nevermind, I figured it out myself. I just renamed gcc296 to gcc and the program compiles fine now. I just put Red Hat 9 onto an old computer out of my closet - it's a 400mhz pentium w/ 128 mb of RAM and I can't believe how much more efficient it seems to be running with Linux installed.

hmmm i dont know about this...perhaps you can try making a symlink

ln -sf /usr/bin/gcc296 /usr/bin/gcc

though you might want another members opinion before doing this, i dont think it would be at all dangerous but id bet theres a better solution

Try linking gcc296 to gcc.

ln -s gcc296 gcc