where are new programs installed too?
 

is there an easy way to find them?
and/or run them?

How did you install said programs?

If you compiled from source, chances are it gave you a link in one of your bin folders. In other words, just type the programs name on any terminal prompt. Type the first few letters of the program and then hit tab a few times, it'll give you list of possible matches, one of them may be your program.

If it's a KDE or Gnome style App, open up your KDE or Gnome menu and look under Lost+Found, there may be a shortcut for the program you installed.

Some programs are aware of the KDE and Gnome menus, so you may have a shortcut in there already, take a look.

How did you install the program?

i just installed a bunch through yast and rpm.suse.com

but ussually i install with rpms using rpm -i program.rpm in consol


and if i type the program name in consol, it doesnt seem to run?

You can use these commands:
- whereis
- locate
- locale

afer all of commad write your program name.

ok, so once i find it, how do i run it with the console window?

To run it just type the full path that whereis/locate/locale gave you, then hit enter.

maybe you have the command name wrong, what is it?

mostly, i ask this question
b/c i got a little install-happy and installed a bunch of stuff
and now i forget what everything was called
and i was wondering if there was an easy way of locating it

check your /usr/bin and or /usr/local/bin folders



maybe even /opt folder

is there a way to view files by date modified?

Read the find man page. It has several options for locating files basedon modification date.