[plug] Newbys guide

[Kev]

Hi Tim

Timothy White wrote:
> 
> Tarballs. Mmmmm... Ouch. The only time I have got lots of tarballs to
> compile and install easily was with Gentoo. Not having used apt-src I
> can't comment for Debian.
> After 3-4 years of using Linux, the only Tarballs I can guarantee to be
> able to get to work are the ones I make (usually PHP applications
> bundled up for easy downloading.)
> Occasionally I'll get a src application that I can get working (If it's
> Java, 99% of the time I can get it working) using './configure, make'
> and sometimes make install (after testing the application in it's
> current location. The reasons I don't usually do 'make install' is
> because the usually isn't a 'make uninstall' or 'unmake'
> Dependencies issues are usually the biggest problem and as I've got more
> experienced I've been able to interpret the crypt error messages and
> workout which Deb packages I need to install to be able to compile.
> 

You see Tim, this paragraph actually highlights to problems many/most of 
us newbies have.  I'm not, never have been nor ever will be a 
programmer, either hobby or professional level.  Good grief, I can only 
spell "C" 2 out of 3 times!!  The entire preceding paragraph might as 
well be greek to most of us - and I don't speak greek either.  It seems 
that if I'm not able to understand what you've said there then I can't 
even reach to launching pad for Linux.  Windows users (and I've never 
been one of those either) want to able to download an application, 
install it and play with it.  It's really that simple.  Expand that 
simplicity into the rest of what Windows useres are used to and you'll 
be approaching the mark.  It's that simple for Windoze users, Mac users, 
OS/2 users, eCS users, BeOS users et al.

his is NOT a flame, just an attempt to explain the reality of the 
problem.  I, for instance, want to move over from OS/2 (coz the 
writing's on the wall for OS/2) with a minimum of fuss, without having 
to understand "compile", "make file", "tarball" etc.

Cheers
Kev