You might want to think about slackware. It has a much less convoluted file system structure and is therefore more understandable. Nothing happens that you don't tell it to. Many say that is why slackware is "hard", but you can keep track of your system much better if your distro doesn't keep trying to do stuff for you. There are still nice looking configuration tools you can run.

I can't understand why you can't just get the updated versions of the packages in questions and install them. You don't need to patch anything.

The patch lets noteedit handle gcc4. It is similar(in concept) to the patch made for TiMidity that let it use the new ALSA API before the authors got around to including it in the main source. The TiMidity patch may have been a backpatch from CVS. Updating would not help any.

I see where you're coming from with slackware with file system simplicity, and I think I'd try it if I wasn't going to be so busy
(you'll be unlikely to see me on this forum again after November until 'bout July 06, and then after that not until 2011! My degree (Lord-willing) starts sept '06, and it could be pretty intense...)

I think I'd also appreciate its reputation for stability, (but as I said...)

That's why I wanted an app-heavy distro, to save me time from searching around for packages I'd need on the net.
So I was sorely disappointed to find out that Fedora didn't come with ANY Mp3 or DVD plugins!

(Would anyone happen to know if Debian or SuSE have these
plugins as standard by the way?)

Call me a wimp, but I do think GUIs can speed things up a bit in some cases.

However, Would I be right in saying that Debian and SuSE do not also have
this problem of not being able to update gcc manually?




Also, what do you mean exactly spooon?
The main point of this thread was that I douldn't install the updated packages of new noteedit version (and its dependencies, libstdc++, etc.) without what I've now found out to be updating gcc from 4.0.0 to 4.0.1, which would probably bork my system if I don't know what I'm doing. That's been all the trouble...

upgrading a core package like gcc-glibc from within is always difficult.
Slackware doesn't mess with any of the original packages, so XMMS can handle MP3's like it is supposed to. A whole plethora of unofficial packages can be aquired from www.linuxpackages.net.
GUIs can be faster, and there are still many GUI-like ncurses apps. For example, "alsaconf" probes your system and configures your sound card. "xorgsetup" does the same for the X Window System. Since it might not do such a great job, "xorgcfg -textmode" can fine-tune it to your needs. localhost:631 in any browser goes to the CUPS webmin. The config files are usually well commented, so it is easy to adjust them slightly.
It still takes a bit of time, though. What is "Lord-willing"?

Thanks, I'll bear all that in mind about the GUIs and slack.

About "Lord Willing":

Just that I'm applying for medicine, and hoping that in accordance with God's will, I'll start studying in Sept '06: so only if it's the "Lord's (God's) Will", because

So even if I'm not successful in my application, (or *whatever* happens to me) it's for good, because God is good, and orders things to the good of those who have taken up his offer of forgiveness!

So e.g. if I was to die...

(not that dying would be such a big deal, because the born-again believer is not fearful of death, as Jesus has saved us from the real reason we're afraid of what comes after death: judgement (and Hell). But Jesus saved us from our own wickedness so we have something really great to look forward to after we die: heaven, with God. This is why the apostle Paul said: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain).

...as I said, if I was to die, even though that might be tragic for my family, someone might be saved at the funeral. And if one other person was saved because of me, even through a whole host of terrible things might happen to me, my life has been worth it, and God has used me to glorify himself.



This is true Christian purpose, (and why I say "Lord-Willing"). I'd *like* to study medicine, but I'd be happiest of all following God's Will, even if that meant being a street cleaner, or dying some horrible death for Jesus like so many of the early Christians under the Roman Emperor Nero, or as many Christians still do today in repressive Muslim/communist countries. Because of course, happiness can be found nowhere else. The more we chase after happiness elsewhere, (money, power, women, drugs) the more we begin to realise that these things bring no happiness, but leave us empty.


If you're interested in your soul/want to discuss something (as we all should be, how do we know that we might not die tomorrow, and have to answer to God?) email me / read on:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/members/gr.../christian.htm

That's my two cents, anyway.

I misunderstood. I thought your degree was in "Lord-willing", not that you were also a christian. I thought "Lord-willing" was a English traditional term for a particular degree.