Advises needed

[Jason Clinton]

On Friday 14 January 2005 10:14 pm, Lim Cheng Siong wrote:
> I am new to Fedora Linux and have just installed and get in running.
> Have a couple of questions and would like to seek your advise...

Welcome to free and open source software.

> 1. I am using GNOME and wondering when I download program like Real
> Player, how do I install the program like what we did in Windows where
> the icons will appeared in desktop and in the Start menu?

See below.

> 2. Is there something in GNOME or in Linux like uninstall once we no
> longer required that program?

See below.

> 3. What's the different between RPM and Package?

All these questions are related to a fundamental paradigm difference between 
Windows in Linux. If you've ever been angry because the uninstaller that came 
with your program didn't work or angry because a simple calculator program 
you downloaded was 10 MB since it included a copy of the latest libraries for 
the author's favorite development tool, then allow me to introduce you to the 
answer: unified installation and tracking systems on Linux.

In Linux everything should be installed and uninstalled through the "package 
management system". This includes RealPlayer. You've already seen on side of 
that system in the update you tried to run. But there's more. A whole lot 
more. It's been some time since I tried Fedora but I'm sure that somewhere in 
there you can 'add and remove software'. That's what you're looking for.

Now, lets use RealPlayer as an example. In this specific case, the 
distributor, Real Networks, has made available an RPM on their web site which 
you can download. RPM's are packages that work with the RPM program on your 
operating system to install software. RPM's have a list of files and 
instructions that the RPM program reads and does. Once you have downloaded 
this file which is specifically crafted for an RPM based distributions like 
Fedora, you can go to the "add and remove software" section of your system 
and tell it that you have an RPM that you would like to install. In this way, 
the operating system keeps track of everything and there's a pretty good 
guarantee that you won't have two copies of the same programmer's library 
anywhere on the system (so you conserve space) and that you can always 
uninstall software even if the author didn't do any testing of the uninstall 
process.

Now, I should also mention that there is a .bin file also available on Real's 
website which should be avoided if at all possible. The .bin is a generic 
installer which you may have some luck with but usually it will just place a 
copy of the software on your system and never add the start menu items or 
register itself with the MIME handler. The RPM file will (probably) add the 
items to your menu, though.

One last complication: all RPM's don't necessarily work with Fedora. There are 
at least 10 other competing distributions of Linux that have adopted the RPM 
format for distributing software packages. Sometimes an RPM is generic enough 
that it will work everywhere; other times, however, you must find an RPM that 
is compatible with your distribution. There are services like rpmfind.net 
that can help with that process.

So I would invite you to explore this new paradigm. Rather than going to the 
site of the author of a program for a package, you should look first for a 
package provided by the Fedora project. Usually this can be found through 
your update software. Next try rpmfind.net. If that doesn't work, try Google. 
If that doesn't work you can always try the .bin file on the author's 
website. For example, Mozilla Firefox is so universally accepted in Linux 
that you will always get it from the distribution's manufacturer instead of 
from mozilla.org.

As a side note, RPM is probably the most popular format for distribution by 
companies. Often times users of distributions that don't use RPM such as 
Slackware, Debian (it rocks) and Gentoo have to get their packages from the 
project's people or from a third party. To get RealPlayer 10 for Debian, for 
instance, I had to go to a third party. While that's certainly a down side to 
using those distributions, there are other benefits offered by Slack, Deb and 
Gentoo that make those distributions very attractive. Feel free to explore 
some of these other options. I would recommend Ubuntu Linux as a good start 
for anyone coming from the Windows world. After a small adjustment phase, you 
would probably want to move on to 'Debian unstable'.

> 4. Does anyone encounter 'hang' when you try to update the patches from
> redhat?

I remember reading somewhere on Slashdot that the Fedora update servers were 
overloaded. Try doing it at a really late hour or early on a Sunday morning. 
If that doesn't work you might have some other problem such as invalid update 
servers listed in your configuration. Someone more familiar with Fedora will 
have to help you with that.

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