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This is my biggest fear about Linux, i've been reading around and they all say you need to 'compile' the binary programs, I don't mind it not just being a few clicks of a button and 'hey presto' a new program is installed, but the way they write the reviews make me think that i'll need to create the program myself.
Customer reviews normally say something along the lines of: "I spent a whole day trying to install an e-mail client, in the end I gave up and dual-booted Windows and Outlook Express"
*screams*
can someone please reasure me this isn't so.
also, do all programs work for all Distros? e.g. SuSe/Mandrake/Redhat/Debian?? or are there different files/installations for the different ones like Mac/Linux/Windows9x|2K/WindowsXP ??
Customer reviews normally say something along the lines of: "I spent a whole day trying to install an e-mail client, in the end I gave up and dual-booted Windows and Outlook Express"
*screams*
can someone please reasure me this isn't so.
also, do all programs work for all Distros? e.g. SuSe/Mandrake/Redhat/Debian?? or are there different files/installations for the different ones like Mac/Linux/Windows9x|2K/WindowsXP ??
No, really, it's not a shame they don't work, it's a very good thing, otherwise you'd be tempted to use them :)
Turbonutter wrote:
> *shudders at the horrible lack of clue here*
>
> Heh, no offence, not your fault.
how is that not my fault? :D was I supposed to be born with this knowledge like everyone else?
I've got a lot of Binary programs, which is good, also got alot of debian programs (I knew about these) it was the other they were talking about, shame the .rpms won't work.
thankyou very much though.
> *shudders at the horrible lack of clue here*
>
> Heh, no offence, not your fault.
how is that not my fault? :D was I supposed to be born with this knowledge like everyone else?
I've got a lot of Binary programs, which is good, also got alot of debian programs (I knew about these) it was the other they were talking about, shame the .rpms won't work.
thankyou very much though.
*shudders at the horrible lack of clue here*
Heh, no offence, not your fault. Here's how it works:
*All* programs work on *all* distributions (RH/Mandrake/SuSE/Debian/etc)
HOWEVER!
The way these programs get to you may not.
A word on compiling:
You are aware that all programs are written, in code, which humans can understand (well, clever humans :-) ). However, computers as a general rule cannot until they are compiled. Compiling is the process of turning a file from ASCII (text) code to binary, so it will work.
Now, you will always have to compile something on your Linux computer - the kernel. Compiling is a fact of life wih Linux and is what makes it *fast*. This doesn't take long though :-)
You may also compile programs. Now, I have to tell you, compiling software is a real biatch. Even on my system I just got bored of compiling everything on Gentoo and now that's just a 600mb bzip file sitting on a CD-RW (1.3gb -> 559mb, not bad).
The good thing is, clever people who make good distributions like the ones you mentioned thought of "precompiling" software and making binary packages for you to download, but lots of types for different setups so they're not as slow as the type you get on Windows.
HOWEVER! (last I promise)
There are different types of "precompiled binaries" or "packages". Most notably these are RedHat RPMs (RedHat Package Management) and Debian ".deb"s. Basically:
RPMs work on lots of things (RH, Mandrake, SuSE) but are crap.
.debs work on Debian only but they rule.
So, simply:
You will have to compile hardly everything, most of it will be done for you already, so don't fret. Installing software on Linux is extremely quick, much quicker than Windows.
Heh, no offence, not your fault. Here's how it works:
*All* programs work on *all* distributions (RH/Mandrake/SuSE/Debian/etc)
HOWEVER!
The way these programs get to you may not.
A word on compiling:
You are aware that all programs are written, in code, which humans can understand (well, clever humans :-) ). However, computers as a general rule cannot until they are compiled. Compiling is the process of turning a file from ASCII (text) code to binary, so it will work.
Now, you will always have to compile something on your Linux computer - the kernel. Compiling is a fact of life wih Linux and is what makes it *fast*. This doesn't take long though :-)
You may also compile programs. Now, I have to tell you, compiling software is a real biatch. Even on my system I just got bored of compiling everything on Gentoo and now that's just a 600mb bzip file sitting on a CD-RW (1.3gb -> 559mb, not bad).
The good thing is, clever people who make good distributions like the ones you mentioned thought of "precompiling" software and making binary packages for you to download, but lots of types for different setups so they're not as slow as the type you get on Windows.
HOWEVER! (last I promise)
There are different types of "precompiled binaries" or "packages". Most notably these are RedHat RPMs (RedHat Package Management) and Debian ".deb"s. Basically:
RPMs work on lots of things (RH, Mandrake, SuSE) but are crap.
.debs work on Debian only but they rule.
So, simply:
You will have to compile hardly everything, most of it will be done for you already, so don't fret. Installing software on Linux is extremely quick, much quicker than Windows.
This is my biggest fear about Linux, i've been reading around and they all say you need to 'compile' the binary programs, I don't mind it not just being a few clicks of a button and 'hey presto' a new program is installed, but the way they write the reviews make me think that i'll need to create the program myself.
Customer reviews normally say something along the lines of: "I spent a whole day trying to install an e-mail client, in the end I gave up and dual-booted Windows and Outlook Express"
*screams*
can someone please reasure me this isn't so.
also, do all programs work for all Distros? e.g. SuSe/Mandrake/Redhat/Debian?? or are there different files/installations for the different ones like Mac/Linux/Windows9x|2K/WindowsXP ??
Customer reviews normally say something along the lines of: "I spent a whole day trying to install an e-mail client, in the end I gave up and dual-booted Windows and Outlook Express"
*screams*
can someone please reasure me this isn't so.
also, do all programs work for all Distros? e.g. SuSe/Mandrake/Redhat/Debian?? or are there different files/installations for the different ones like Mac/Linux/Windows9x|2K/WindowsXP ??