new to Linux

[Jason Fruge]

Good choice getting off the windows bandwagon! and good
choice with SuSE! 
SuSE 6.3 was nice, but SuSE 6.4 is better for new guys IMO.
The installer (YaST2) will configure your sound card and
ethernet adapters (or modems) and alot of other stuff. It is
worth the upgrade! just make sure you hit thier web site and
get the updates right away =o) (netscape mail won't work
until you update the package)

Installing applications 80% of the time consists of
downloading the tarball and unpacking it (tar zxvf
tarball.tgz) then entering the souce code dir and type ./ or
sh configure (./configure) then 'make' then 'make install
(as root)' then 'make clean(if you want to keep the source
code)'
If that didn't make sense try this one out =o)

tar zxvf sourcecode.tgz
cd sourcecode
./configure # if this part is written well, everything else
should go perfect.
make or make linux # this is the compile, you should only
have to type 'make'
make install # you have to be root for this
make clean # if you want to keep the source code this is a
good practice.

hope this helps!

keep in mind some other programs like staroffice won't have
these steps, they will have thier own installers which you
just ./installer.sh or whatever it is named. Usually there
is a README that explains what you need to do.
  

-- 
Jason
geocajun at technogeeks.org

Don't Drink and Park, Accidents Cause People.

verde at worldinter.net wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm very new to linux and I have some questions... if that is ok.
> 
> I come from a Windows world. Infact I'm a Third level tech and a major
> corp in KC. Blah, blah, blah...
> 
> I'm trying my hardest to get off of the MS bandwagon and I can't seem to
> figure out how to do some simple things in Linux. (At least I think they
> should be simple)
> 
> First, I running SuSE 6.3 on a Pentium Pro200 with 112mb ram and a 6GB
> HDD.
> 
> Now the question(s)  How do I install applications? I want to load a
> simlpe checkbook program and I can't seem to get it to install.
> 
> How do I setup my sound?  I've done the video and modem but...now sound.
> 
> Thanx in advance,
> 
> Jason
>