new to Linux

[Jonathan Hutchins]

On Thursday 13 November 2003 07:39 pm, Rick Franklin wrote:

> Question #1: What is a good source for a new user to learn how to
> properly install rpm's?

A quick search for "RPM" on http://www.tldp.org turned up both the 
RPM-for-Unix-HOWTO and a chapter in Linux Administration Made Easy (LAME) on 
using RPM.

"Dependency hell" is nothing compared to the hell you can get into trying to 
compile a new package which either assumes you have a full development 
environment, or a bunch of other stuff that has nothing to do with your 
system.  I once had a package that linked to libraries that were specific to 
a certain video card!  Command-line RPM is a little tricky, as you have to 
locate and provide any necessary dependencies, but the GUI tools, up2date, 
and URPMI have all made great advances toward automatically locating, 
downloading, and installing dependencies.  Still not perfect, but...