How to install programs, basic auestion
 

Hi all!

This is real newbie question. I have recently installed Linux Redhat 9.0 and got the resulotion right thanks to HarPax (on this board). Now i want to install Licq (icq for linux), could someone tell me what is the standard way to install programs on a Linux system? i read in the readme files for most programs that you have to compile the program? what does that mean. I also see while downloading programs that you can choose to download a binary files, what does that mean. Please dont laugh at me im totally new at this. But i can tell you this Linux is much more fun than Windows, it kind of reminds me of the old days hacking the C64 and Amiga, and as soon as i got Linux the way i want it i dont ever want to use windows again. It took me 3 days to get my resolution right but thanks to you guys i did it and i can tell you it was worth it, hope i get some help with installing progz to!


Peace

//Tom

binaries (rpm , deb , ..) are like setup files .exe in win. and they are easier to install u just double click on them or type rpm -i <program name> , while source files u must compile them by typing : ./configure
make
make install (using su)

but its also better to read the readme file that comes with the source.

sorry forgot to tell u :)

u should try to check out a program called yum or apt-get they will make searching and installing software a whole lot easier .

example : if u want to install mplayer in apt-get all u have to do is type apt-get install mplayer
thats it , it will download it from the net and install it for u and if it needs any other dependancy it will download it too ,
to make things easier there is a gui for it called synaptic.

Thank you for your reply, the install file mentions that you need a C++ compiler, what is the esiest to install and best compiler to use?

u should already have a c++ compiler
the one that i know is gcc u could know which vresion that u have by typing :
gcc --version

The best compiler to use is probably the one that came with your distro. It might have already been installed by default. If not, check your distro's documentation on installing 'development tools'.