[scribus] FINALLY MADE THE PLUNGE TO LINUX!/installing applications

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Þann mán 20.sep 2010 02:29, skrifaði Joe Zeff:
> On 09/19/2010 05:52 PM, Carl Symons wrote:
>> It is possible to install most Linux apps without using
>> repositories.
>> If you decide to go this route, you will learn a lot very
>> quickly. It
>> may not be the smoothest ride however.
>
> As another Linux geek, let me assure you that your best bet
> is using your distro's repositories whenever possible.
> Everything's been customized to go in the right places for
> your system and you won't find yourself in dependency hell.
> I'd like to wish you the best of luck, both with Linux in
> general and in finding and installing all the apps you need.
>

Hi Robert,

As another OpenSuse/Scribus user, I must agree with both of 
above; learn how to compile stuff - but start with something 
a bit less complicated than Scribus and friends.

First is to learn and see how repositories work, wait until 
you see how upgrades come in, add some new basic additional 
repos like packman and videolan (for non-free stuff).

The repo I'm using for Scribus is mrdocs;
<URL: 
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/mrdocs/openSUSE_11.2/>; 
which gives me Scribus 1.3.7 plus some more recent PDF 
utilities and color profiles. Ghostscript 8.64-6.3.1 comes 
from the normal Opensuse-11.2-Update repository. Stable as hell.

One tip; many OpenSuse/Yast users get into one type of 
complications (especially new users): It's too friggin easy 
to add repositories (in yast or via OneClickInstallations) 
an they end up with a repository list that goes from here to 
the moon.
Be careful, some of the independent repos break from time to 
time, read carefully what intentions the repo managers have 
(bleeding edge or stability), don't overcomplicate your system.

Even the official OpenSuse repos may *break* from time to 
time, Novell employees have the bad habit of not always 
warning people when they change contents in repos. If you're 
not interested in bugreporting, whenever there's a big 
critical upgrade announced (kernel, graphics driver, window 
manager), just wait a week or two before applying the 
updates (others will take the shit for you now - you will 
for others later).

If your system gets all *foobar*, fortunately there's a 
little last-aid kit built into the software management 
module in Yast: by choosing instead of View-->Repositories 
and selecting a repo (e.g. OpenSuse-Stable); above there's a 
link named "Switch system packages to the versions in this 
repository". Which after some cups of coffee should render 
your system usable again.
And this yast2 module can also be run in an DOS-like 
environment from command line, even in rescue mode I think. 
Very handy sometimes (when you/someone screws up your 
graphics driver).

Good luck.

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