A few questions on Linux [to make the switch]

[Dodge7]

I have been told that Linux is like the Mac, you can just drag and drop programs, without needing a specialiized install program like Winodws requires. And now I am told Linux DOES require install programs. You can't just drag and drop. Which is right? [If that is the case I would just stay with Windows, that is one of my major complaints - the hassle of doing system reinstalls and finding the install programs.

I am not too fond of Open Office.. do I have any other [good] choices?

Thanks for any help and feedback
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computer: a white box from a nondescript store, with nondescript employees named Steve, Kurt, Dave ...

[OOPS!]

Hi,

Well, to answer your question about install programs -- yes and no . Yes there are special programs that need to be installed to be able to install software. Such as gcc compilers and make to name a few.

The good news is they are generally installed automaticlly for you and you need not know much of anything about them. They work in the background. Even Macs use install software, they just hide it from you.

If you use an RPM based distro like Mandrake and wish to install software you simply start a program like kpackage and then select the rpm you want and click install. Or better yet open a terminal and type "urpmi packagename" (Mandrake distros only, others use thier own stuff). You can install from webbased software repositories easily that way.

Compiling from source is different than installing from a pre-compiled binary al la windows or rpms. And this is what you might be thinking about. It is a different procedure indeed. Source code is generally compressed into a "tarball" (that's just a compresstion format like zip is), they often are file names that end it ".tar, .tar.gz, or .tar.bz2. The first thing to do is open a terminal, then you uncompress it by typing "tar xzvf filename". Then you can go into the uncompressed directory and there you generally run the commands "./configure", "make", and last, "make install". Then you can start using your new software right away.

If you stick with whatever distro's software manager does, then you are never more than a few mouse clicks away from new software. But, even compiling from source isn't hard or mystical either. Just different. Plus, YOU have total control, nothing is hidden from you.

If you don need a lot of MS Office compatability, then you could check out KOffice, or AbiWord.

HTH,
OOPS!

[Dodge7]

I know that with the old Mac OS you could just drag and drop and application from another Mac, and run it. I've done it, in fact I dragged and dropped the system folder, gone back and forth running the system from a floppy and HD, and it worked.

I think the new Mac is the same. I heard of people taking iPods into computer stores, corpying MS Office off the Mac's HD and then dropping it on their computer... no specialized install program required?

So, I thought Linux was the same...

[LocoCoyote]

It sounds to me like you were either lucky by moving compatable files, or something. I do not think there is anything as a OS independant drag and drop! Now the files may or may not be recognizable to your OS. ie a .txt file will be readable by almost everything out there, while a Windows .exe may cause problems under OpenBSD. Now there are great utilities for reading these oddball files, but not all files will work on all systems.

An interesing aside here......
Mac OS X is differnt from the eairlier Mac OS's. OS X is based on BSD Unix!

[rcx21000]

If you are worried about program installation, get Gentoo Linux (www.gentoo.org). It's hard to install the distro, but it has great packae managment. If you want to install anything, just do:

emerge thing_to_install

For example firefox:

emerge mozilla-firefox

Will DL & install all firefox files. The program does have to be in Gentoo's database of programs, but almost everything is there, and to update, just do:

emerge rsync

I love Gentoo

[LocoCoyote]

I have never tried that, but it seems to me to be a backwards way to accomplish the task. I must also wonder about developing a system that does not follow the standard (even if it is only a de facto standard)
Then again, package installment/management is one of the main stumbling points for new users.