hello, i have what might be a stupid question.

i am new to linux and am still very much dependant on GUI...
in any case. i have read far too much in the last couple days on this and that during my install and trying to get things to work that just dont make sense.

so this is a lazy question.

when using Yum, i see that it downloads RPMS and such to install as updates, and creates a repository, and then you can choose to install them or not, and then it keeps them around in case of need to reinstall, update etc.

however i dont see anywhere to actually REMOVE these things.
Ive downloaded a sizeable amount of things as im exploring and trying to get the full gist of this linux thing.

my concern eventually will be the wasted space of all these files that im not using.

so long story short. is there somewhere OTHER than in a command line to delete these things or at least remove them from being part of the update process once ive installed what i need?

sorry not more concise.. tired and worn out

thanks for any help offered.

actually, that would probably work but while it may not be cool. I want to stick with GUI only because im seriously comparing linux to windoze

i found that the KYum gui works real well, and actually SHOWS you the commands its doing for you...

but thank you for your response

yumex is also a GUI frontend for Yum but i find it no-where near as fast as the temrinal driven one.

Also from what i can work out when yum runs it downloads the header files from the repos, which as i understand it contain lists/details of the packages available. You then choose which you want to download/install and it does so. Unless you type yum install <package> no actual packages are downloaded, just header files @ a few 100kb. these are updated too for new files/old ones removed within the repository. So i wouldn't worry about all these random packages on your system unless you install everything and the kitchen sink, in which case it can be removed by yum remove <package> or with a GUI tool like you stated

If your trying to compare LINUX to WINBLOWS your beating a dead horse.
If you don't like or don't want to use the command line you mite as well stop now.
The command line in linux is a very valuable asset as opposed to winblows and is a very powerful and is needed for allot of things
Sorry!

If that is the case for the command line thing. PLEASE make this known to all before hand. I really don't like the command line stuff, WAY TOO confusing. If I had known this early on, I wouldn't have even bothered with Linux.

Thanks for this info. I guess it reformat time and back to BSOD.
Later......

Knowledge of the command line is not an absolute necessity and you can do a lot of stuff without it. There are certain things in Linux and other Unix based systems that are quicker to do in the command line or that are just impossible to do in the gui and having some knowledge of the command line comes in handy. Also if your gui fails for whatever reason, you can fix it from the command line without having to reinstall and possibly losing any data like you would on Windows. Learning the command line doesn't have to be confusing, there are many newbie friendly resources out there and you don't need to know everything because its practically impossible.

tweakerxp, if you had read any Linux or Unix documentation before deciding to use Linux, you would have found out, that the command line is used a lot in these OSes although some provide gui tools to make system administration easier.

Well I see that I'm not alone here. I have went through the 43 pages here at this fourm and there are a lot of newbies all saying pretty much the same thing I'm saying. Is there any little program out there to tech us the command line? Help us learn it instead of telling us to just "google it". We get that alot from the people here. That seems to be some pat answer to most questions. I'm not here to flame each other that doesn't do any good for either one of us. I'm flustrated and confused. I'm here with hat in hand looking for help.(an old old say) I keep getting the same answers that doesn't help me, maybe I'm not asking the question correctly something, I don't know.

I type in the exact commands that I'm told and nothing happends. I type in the commands excatly like in the links that I given, nothing happends. I keep running in circles, if that makes sense.

How do I learn the command line?
Where do I learn the command line?

I don't want to get in to a pissing match, that the last thing I want. I WANT to learn the command line. Is there a program or something out there to teach me this? Maybe that is where I need to start.
I'm not giving up yet.....

Please I'm not trying to offend, I'm flustrated that I'm not making any headway. Oh I did get my cd-rom to play !! Don't know how but it does.

Thanks

Maybe you should buy some Linux or Unix books. Also take a look at rute, the linux cookbook and linuxcommand.org.

Can I get these at the bookstore? Do you recommend any other books? Because I'm heading to the bookstore as soon as you reply.

How about the book 'Linux for dummies" ?? Are those kind of books helpful?

Thanks

IT should be possible to get them in a bookstore. I agree with you that "google it" is too pat an answer, but it does teach research skills, which will help you when you are a guru and no one else knows what the hell your problem is. IT also allows you to use many of the resources already out there, although this could be simplified if the expersts who tell people like us to "google it" would just provide links to the stuff they know.

OTOH, I like the command line. IT is pretty useful, very precise, and the way to learn what a command does and how to use it can be very simple. just type "man <command>" and if you have documentation installed, it should give you a manual. info works to, and gives a different manual, so try them both.

OTGH, I really believe that stuff should be made much simpler. MUch of the GUI in Linux is a horribly leaking abstraction. It really needs to be improved, and the programmers working on it's various parts need to communicate with each other more. There should be a special club or something. Give them all christmas candy when they collaborate.

Collaboration has allways been a problem with unices. there allways seems to be some kind of parrallel standard. I think that this is an area where microsoft has an advantage. Iit's at the user-interface level thatpeople have the most problems. I personally thinbk it's a more pressing issue for distros to start stealing each other's package managers, but thats just IMHO.

I love the Dummies books and even have a few of them. Sorry, not the Linux one as I came into Linux from a Unix background which really shortened the learning curve.
I'd say go to a large bookstore if possible and start browsing any Linux books you see. Sure, some are going to be way over your head, but I'm sure there will be at least 1 or 2 at the beginning level. Do you know the command: man ?
If you don't know how to use a command, just type in
man commandname . If it's a linux command, it will explain what the command does and the syntax.

Here is a site with some nice tutorials on the command line and how to move around, tips and tricks, etc..

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/cli.html

Oh, here's an even better link for tutorials!

http://linuxreviews.org/beginner/

And as always, ask here! I know sometimes it seems like people can be a bit short, but sometimes it does get frustrating trying to help someone who does not want to do ANY research, and just wants an answer (and doesn't care HOW it works, just that it does, etc..). This is not your case as you said you've been googling yer bunns off but not getting anywhere! Yep frustrating, but didn't if feel good when you got your CD working? Sometimes for me, the battle is the best part! (I hate it when this machine beats me!). Anyway...hang in there! Once you get the concept down a bit, it's not so bad and foreign.

Let us help you, and maybe someday you can help someone else!

Back from the store...

I got the SuSE Linux 10 for Dummies and I got Practical guide to Linux - Commands, ecditors and shell programming. This one looks a little deep. I got two weeks off and I'm going to get this!

Yeah, It did feel good to get my cd player working just got to figure out what I did.<G>

The command line interface (CLI) in Linux is the quicker and easier (believe it or not!) way to do almost everything on Linux that doesn't absolutely require a GUI, like a game or graphics app...

Once you've used Linux long enough you will realize that the cli is your friend and the mouse is a pain in the ass...

Books are great, but Google and this and other Linux how-to sites are by far the quickest and easiest way to learn Linux.

The CLI is more user friendly than you think, give it a try!