YUM and OpenOffice 2.xx
 

I am a YUM newbie and new to the whole package managed thing. I usually prefer to build from source and control my installs. That being said I am supporting a co-worker (complete linux newbie) with CentOS. He needs the latest openoffice 2.xx (whatever it is now). YUM only seems to know about version 1.2.xx. I saw somewhere that there are rpms for openoffice 2.0,

So my questions are:

1) How can I get YUM to find these (and other packages that I may want at a future date?)

2) Is it a matter of just adding more repositories? If so is there a list of these repos somewhere?

If I cannot use YUM do I have to do the whole manual rpm thing? I would rather use yum if its possible.

thanks in advance.

yum search openoffice
that should help you, with alot of results :p

whats so tough in installing from rpms?

It gives me the same results. Meaning it ONLY shows versions in 1.2 range ( 1.1.2-31.6.0.EL4 ) and makes no mention of openoffice 2.x. So does that mean that a CentOS 4.3 package for oo 2.x does not exist? Does it mean that I may need to add new repositories to find it ? If so is there a list of centos repositories somewhere?

Nothing really. But YUM seems to be a cool tool and if it is available then why not use it.

My early experiences with RPM's and Red Hat were horrible (RH 6,7) so I have built a distrust for it (whether or not it is warranted or not) and RedHat from the git-go. I have used Slackware pretty much exclusively since 1996. I like the control.

I guess I have a mental block that seems to say if up2date/YUM on CentOS is not showing me the latest openoffice then my reaction is that it is not ready/approved for CentOS. I guess alot of this could be alleviated if I knew the answers to a couple of questions.

1) How do I tell if an RPM is usable on my distribution?

2) Are all RPM's usable in a Package Managed system?

3) Is there a standard for naming RPM's ?

thanks.

well I guess you need to add some repos, cause my fedora shows me the latest ones.

this should answer your other questions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPM_Package_Manager

Thanks. The wikipedia explanation was great. Now I'll have to look for some better repo's.
Whats your favorite?