i am using simply mepis and i ma having constant trouble while installing software which is dependency error i am a complete newbie due to that dependency prob iam going to shift on LINSPIRE is that a good choice or there is some other disto to fit me (actually in search of a disto that runs cedega and has multimedia support)............help..

It's a big distro with 5 CD's, but Novell/Suse 10 has very good support for sound. They did a lot of the initial work developing the ALSA sound system. Ubuntu also installs very easily.

Welcome to LQ.

Harry

Personally I'd stay clear of Linspire - if you want to use their software repository you have to pay a periodic fee. Better to stick with something like Ubuntu at the start.

does open suse have user friendly environment....... im a complete linux newbie u know ......!!!

SUSE is very user friendly, that doesn't mean you can do everything "out of the box", but you have a great forum support and lot's of howto's.
It's one distro i recomend to a person who is trying to get in the linux world

how much disk space does it require to install ..................and is it ready right after installation for playing mp3s DVDs and that stuff....................
its been over a month and still cant get a distro for me...........i need a linux which is ready for all kinds of multimedia right after installation and also have good support for cedega and winex and is free from dependency error as i told i have that prob in simplymepis and i cant run its apt-get command since i am behind an isa firewall..........
the prob with suse for me is that my net is not capable of downloading that huge disto its just tooo big i dont even know that if i have the space for it on my hard drive.....!!!!

If you want something is ready right after install then I suggest PcLinuxOS. It has a nice control centre for doing systems tasks like setting up the system. Everything works out of the box, dvd's, windows media formats, mp3 etc etc. It packas alot on to one single cd. I think after install it is about 1.2 gb or something.

There is additional software available from there repos that is not included on the cd. All dependences are handled for you.

Stear clear of Suse, its crippled, ok its easy to use, but you wil lrun into problems down the line when yo ant to play mp3's etc.

Best of all with PcLinuxOS is designed to be a constant upgrade, so to go from each release of the distro you do it all online, rather then downloading the new cd images and burning them to cd, then installing them.

PcLinuxOS is also a live cd/install cd, so you can try it out before installing, as you can with Mepis andthen if you like, its a n easy gui based installer. It takes about 15-20 mins to install.

My suggestion is pclinuxos for a new user. I cannot help with the firewall issue though.

PcLLinuxOS site:

http://pclinuxos.com/news.php

Screenshots of PcLinuxOS:

http://shots.osdir.com/index.php?distro=25

Video of PCLinuxOS:

http://osvids.com/linclips/files/page7-1040-pop.html

Michael.

Both Suse and Mandriva are well-known for their ease of use. Both are very user-friendly and have top-notch installer programs. Distros like these have a lot of configuration wizards that make it way easier to get all the computer's hardware working 'right out of the box'. I was surprized when Suse 10 even installed my scanner without a hitch! In distros made for more experienced users, you'd have to edit a lot of text files by hand to get all the hardware to work.

as i mentioned earlier that i cant get the apt-get command to work due to the isa server .....can u tell me why that command is necessary .......cant i get the deian binary package of a software and the install it with the package manager


and i need to know in detail what does dependency error mean ......????
will i get it in PCLINUXOS(when not using apt-get )....... LINSPIRE( when not using CNR or apt-get).........

The way the packages are created is that they depend on other packages, which in turn depend on other packages further still. The point of doing this is to save time for the programmers. Why bother writing code to save an image for every graphics editor when there is already a capable library available for the job. Hence the devlopers use the library to carry out the work, thus adependency.

Now you could do as you asked and download the package manually then install it. However if for example you went to install Gimp, thios depends on many gtk packages which in turn depend on other packages. This would mean you would have to work out what packages you need to also download manually in order to install and use Gimp. This could well work out to be over 100 packages.

The purpose of apt is to make this easier for you, so you would type apt-get inastall gimp, this would then work out all the dependencies for you for the package and download them automatically for you. It basically automates the process of dependencies.

Could explain further what the error says, the exact text it outputs.

it says in simplymepis .......http:/mepis.......filtered by http filter .Contact ur isa server .
that is what i remember.
i will copy paste the exact message as soon as possible( within a few hours) cuz i am posting this reply from windows.......
as i see i need an http-tunnel type client as it is in windows
tell me if u know any ....!!!!
thankx for all the info ur giving me dude....thankx alot....thankx to all who have helped so far and keep doing it ......