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If you are new to Linux, or just interested, there are a lot of Free and Open Source alternatives to common 'payware' applications on Microsoft and Apple platforms (sorry, no Photoshop, though.) See the sites listed at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsApplicationsEquivalents. Like many Ubuntu or Gentoo or Redhat forums, the information contained is actually relevant to other distributions like openSuSE.

One thing openSuSE has going for it is that the default browsers come with support for YaST's on-click install. So one way to get much of the stuff that you might want is to first check the search website. If someone else has already packaged the software and made it available on that site, then installing it is literally one click away in the search results.

Yes, to fit with what most people expect, the service could use an 'app store' UI with little application review pages, comments and pretty icons. But it certainly beats hunting out each dependency on rpmseek or rpm.pbone.net. (If you are lucky to find packaged software at all.)

Here's a list of supported distributions (at least for that specific RPM). I first used it in RHEL 5 and CentOS is probably a good way to go if you want to get close to RHEL. Also, I forgot to mention that the "setsebool" command is also useful.

Even for OSS, that's just not the same as being able to distribute one package that works everywhere. On Windows (9x, 2k, XP Home, XP Pro, Vista's 7 versions), I can ship one binary package that works for everybody.

Depends. Do all 9x boxen have the .net runtime? Do they all use the same MFC? Only the most basic program can you make it run on any platform. Or are you coding in Java???

Microsoft doesn't have to approve my package before making it easily available to users - any Windows user can download my one simple installer and have it work for them regardless of their version.

Odd, I use FC5, and I use third party yum repositories for any software not officially provided by the main Fedora repository.

Now look at Linux: there are many different distros, with many different package formats. I'd have to provide RPMs, DEBs, tarballs, and probably multiple versions in each format (since it might depend on different packages for different distros). Users would have to know which package to download.

That's what apt-get or yum are for. And with synaptic or yumex it's a piece of cake.

If the experience is going to be easy, I have to beg the distro's maintainer to provide an official package--some distros are very slow to add new products.

Again, see my comment above about third party repositories.

A real-world example of this is SeaMonkey [mozilla.org]. How long will it be until Debian users can install the software easily? Windows users can have the latest version as soon as we ship it. Linux users generally have to wait for their distro to provide an updated package.

That's odd. pbone.net has Seamonkey in their repository. If I want it, I can get it here ...snip

but the vast majority of people just want to install a binary using whatever method they normally use (e.g. google for the website, download an installer, or search Synaptic, etc).

See comments above about third party repositories. If you want to be bleeding edge, that's your problem, not the distro's.

>>> 1. No fecking media support!

Distributor's policy.
For RedHat, please see: http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html

>>> 2. Why the hell do I have to install a new kernel? Why?

These are build numbers. Many are test builds which are not released. These are not always changes bugs but lots of times performance and hardware compatibility adjustments.

See http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/22/idpl/28456 36/com/changelog.html for an example of changes.

Windows also does this, it's called Windows Update. But most of it's fixes and patches tend to be in other applications. The windows kernel rarely changes because Microsft is not actively developing or maintaining it. Also hardware support does not need to be programmed into the kernel in the same way it does in Linux. But this has tradeoffs in terms of security and stability.

>>> 3. Point 2 also breaks my nvidia drivers.
>>> I don't want to re-compile new drivers everytime there's a new 'patch'. For the love of god, why?!

You generally shouldn't have to, unless the kernel changes version or some other change breacks ABI (application binary interface) compatibility. That's where two compiled programs no longer work together and need to be recompiled to function. Sometimes syscalls get removed or changed in linux and then you need to recompile to get them working again.

Again windows doesn't have this issue because windows never changes (which may or may not be a good thing).

>>> 4. X-Windows. What a mess. Why do I have to tell it my x & y refresh rates for my monitor?

It *DOES* just 'know'. For quite a while now. It's call EDID, short for "Extended display identification data". It's an open hardware standard that allows the video card to query the monitors capability. If things are configured properly, X along with your video driver will query the card and will know which scanrates are valid. Check your /var/log/Xorg.log.0 for details. You should no longer have any 'ModeLines' in your /etc/xorg.conf file.

>>> 5. Lack of decent file-browser. The best I've come across is Nautilus
>>> in a mode that resembles Windows Explorer. It'll do for now...

Not every enjoys "spacial mode", the default on some distros. It was introduced as the default for Gnome in 2.10 I beleive to very much mixed review. It can be disabled via gconf (similar to windows registry). See: http://www.larsen-b.com/Article/133.html

>>> as far as I'm aware, offers no context-sensitive menus for applications
>>> (like the Winamp "Play in Winamp" right-click menu on folders.

In fact, it actually does. In fact it's got "Open With" and a feature to allow you to specify which program to launch with, which is remembered and presented in the menu and associated with the file type by it's mime-type (file extentions don't matter), which is superior with windows, imho.

From the right-click context menu on any file, choose Properties, and go to the "Open With" tab.

>>> Actually, I think that's largely it. In all, Linux has, and is
>>> continuing to be great fun to play with. So many cool tools -
>>> yum being one of them. I'll stick to Linux @ home; it can only
>>> get better, but I'd be interested to know what people think of
>>> the above points - any suggestions maybe? I want this to work after all...

Glad to hear it. I wish more people shared your supportive and constructive attitude. The fact that desktop linux is where it is now is even amazing considering it's being built and shaped by so many people and specialized into so many different areas of use. It's still relatively new in comparis

You'll need Win32 Codecs (for vent).
Ventrilo guide using Cedega. I am not having luck with getting ventrilo working under WINE (the sound devices).
Steam guide for CS:S & HL2.
I've had it working on SUSE10. No luck on bsd (due to ATI drivers :|)

If only pigs had wings

Come on, what kind of browncoat are you? The appropriate responses would be:

"If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak right now."

or:

"If only I had a magical wish-granting plank."

fortune-firefly is your friend. :)

Yes that is absolutely what I'm saying...and for the Linux guys I'll even point out the rpm http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/3/srodzaj/2/s earch/MPlayer-w32codecs-1.0pre7try2-15.sparc.rpm

My story is similar. I've been a windows user since I began working on computers. First 98 and then XP (yeah I'm young). I started reading on /. and other places how linux is the greatest thing and completely free and lets you do anything and much more.

I got hold of Mandrake 8.1 then. I installed it. Results: PS/2 simple 2-button mouse wasn't working properly, sound wasn't working, modem wasn't working. Tried to find info/help on linux IRC channels and newsgroups, everyone would suggest his thing, editing endless text files, nothing worked. I finally uninstalled.

After a couple of years I find a Fedora Core 3 DVD. I install on a small 3 GB partition I had (manually partitioning because the auto-partitioning tool would report for some reason that there was inadequate space). I chose the "Personal" installation settings because this is my desktop computer.

I have 3 internal modems, zero work under linux. It's ok, as they're winmodems and the like, ok.

I try to listen to some mp3's, turns out I can't do it. RedHat hasn't included mp3 support for legal reasons. Ok. I go and download xmms. It needs gcc or something. Gcc wasn't installed with my personal profile. I try to install it, add/remove program reports that there are dependency errors (even though I haven't changed a thing after installing). After trying again without absolutely no changes, it proceeds but reports that it has failed because 200 MB are needed and they're not available, even though 500 MB are available. I look online, people tell me to use yum. I try to use yum, turns out it tries to download those 200 MB from the internet, which would be a no-no even if any of my 56k modems did work. I try to uninstall something using yum, it still tries to connect to the net. I give up.

(By the way, trying to uninstall anything of the useless (for me) server software FC3 chose to install on my desktop computer throws dependency errors)

I go to http://rpm.pbone.net/, I download an xmms version for FC3, I install, turns out it doesn't have mp3 support either because the rpm was prepared by Redhat. At that point I gave up and went back to Windows XP. I still have FC3 installed though. Maybe it'll come in handy. I doubt so.

Well, I don't know what "mere mortals" you know, but in my college 471 network lab class we are using RedHat 7.3 (IDK Why, the school refuses to upgrade).

Probably your school refuse to upgrade because it take time your techs may not have, and involve a certain risk they are not willing to take. RH 7.3 was a pretty good and solid release, but its time have passed. It's like the Windows 98 of Linux; a lot of people use it as it was very widely deployed, but its time have passed and you would rather use something else today. You should remind your school administration that this release does not receive any more update, which may leave it open to some security bugs (unless they use the update service of Progeny, that is).

One of my classmates has spent the entire semester till now trying to install FireFox with no success. Everyone else is stuck using Mozilla 0.9 that came with it as we cannot seem to install any software not specially prepared by the instructor.

According to rpm.pbone.net, Dag's repo have an rpm of FireFox 1.0 for RedHat 7.3. Enjoy !

These are Computer Information System majors, who have taken programming classes, data communication classes, and have done projects with various software to get to a high 400 level class. We cannot get software to install on linux reliably.

I know some of them myself. A CS degree actually mean very little when it come to actual computer usage and troubleshooting. Certainly mean you're pretty smart, but that's about it.

And why do I need a program to install a program? It just doesn't make any sense.

It depend how you see it. You need a web browser to chase down freeware on the Internet, is'nt it ironic too ?

In the end, if using a package manager make your life easier ... why not ?

Some of you guys may not suggest Fedora for a linux beginner, but wait, I have seen quite a few users hop on to linux, completely abandoning Windows right with Fedora Core 1, and they are actuallly happy with it!
Installing applications are not that hard unlike the earlier days. I recommend rpm.pbone.net to find your applications packaging for Fedora, I have been 99.99% successfull! And with the brand new Yum, staying upto date is always a breeze.
I also recommend adding Dag Wieers repository in your yum configuration and this particular one releases very useful applications/updates. Needless to stay, once you load fancy themes and eye-candy like gDesklets you really can grab the eyes of people around you while giving you a pleasurable user experience.

Here is the answer to the question you almost asked:
http://rpm.pbone.net/

What kind of crack are you smoking? Seriously? I'm downloading it right now with the bittorrent rpm available on pbone which was easily found on the first page of a google search for "bittorrent fedora rpm"

Specifically, Daniel Stone's backport of 4.3, since June, on a laptop.

Finding more recent but unofficial packages for Debian isn't any more difficult than finding ones for Redhat.

Yes, APT is a great piece of the puzzle, but it doesn't solve everything - for example, in Fedora, there was a package checked in for Bittorrent-GUI, which required a package wxPython, which exists NOWHERE on the 'Net. Smooth.

The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung

I wondered why you used the ue to represent the umlaut u. Then I tried charpick, and although it puts an umlaut u in the "Comment", this gets turned into an ordinary u when I click on Preview. Who needs to fix what?

This kernel includes patches useful for multmedia purposes like: preemption, low-latency and the ability for processes to transfer their capabilities. The preemtion patches allow a task to be preempted anywhere within the kernel, using spinlocks as markers for non-preemptibility regions. The resulting system response is greatly increased, with measured average latencies under 1ms. Andrew Morton's low-latency patches fix the remaining points in the kernel that cause latency. The setpcap patch allows suid root processess to transfer capabilities to non-root processess, and so making it possible for user processes to run with realtime priority.