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.