Yeah, Linux packages can be a pain to install. I've been using linux for about a year now and I have yet to succeed on installing a package without apt-get or synaptic. I think linux is more a sort of elitist geek-for OS, kind of the alternative for the nonconforming. I sort of differ from the general view, I don't hate complications, rather, I enjoy the challenge they pose and the learning experience one gets from slolving them.

I see it like this: if you want to learn new and fascinating things about how your computer works and are willing to take the challenge use linux, if you just wanna have a good time stick to windows. Not that I'm some sort of souless robot or anything, I too enjoy the (somewhat insecure) ease of use in windows, but it's not as intellectually appealing as linux.

I guess It would be a little sad for me and those who share my view for linux to become as simplistic as windows... no challenge or learning experience involved. But then, it IS true that that's what it would take for the average user to take linux seriously as an alternative, besides the fact that technology constantly becomes easier to use, afte all the whole point of it is to simplify life, not to complicate it. But like that garbage song goes: "I only like it when it's complicated..." or whatever...

Regarding this article, that's all fine and dandy
if the software you want is in the distro package.
But what about installing software that you
download from the internet ? I still to this day have
not been able to install java from the internet. The
file downloads to my desktop, but I can't get it
to install. There are also some other programs I
would like to download and install, but how's
a newbie supposed to do this ? By the way, my final
Linux OS distro is Kubuntu ( Ubuntu with KDE
desktop ) is what I use on my Compaq laptop.
So I am stuck in this world where I can't install
downloaded software.
stuck in the

I have been playing with linux for several years now and my frustration is growing, although it is more stable, the main problem i have is that i like software that is not the norm (eg electronics software) therefore generally these aplications are seldom included with distro CDs, i have downloaded thousands of tar balls and RPMs and i would have to say that 99% of the stuff i have downloaded has never installed or worked.
There are always complaints that this and that dependancies are not installed and when you do seek them and install them, then you get this and that error, I consider myself to be of higher than average understanding of computers, having done some education in writing software C++ Basic, but to me Linux is just a miserable thing because you waste such vast aamounts of time just to intsall one thing that never ends up working.
I Know no one really cares what i say, and the nerds who are into linux will say (login as root user) or somthing simplistic as that to answer my question, but i can assure you i have put in the time and research and still have got nowhere, i believe the average joe will never convert to linux until this problem is addressed.
I feel windows still wins as much as i hate to admit it, because the fact is most people leed busy lives and cant afford to waste several days just to install somthing a simple program that they might use twice a month.
So if any important linux people read this MAKE IT EASIER TO INSTALL STUFF.
Or you will never win th OS war, I have found thousands of similar complaints on on the net, linux developers just listen for sht sakes. yours sincerly Disapointed Linux user.

With 20 years in computers, mostly DOS then Windows and now spending most of my time in linux (for the last 2 years) using a number of distributions I find that installing programs under linux is still EXTREMELY difficult and virtually impossible for a new user.

Let's get off the apt and synaptic kick. These rely on high speed internet. Take a package give it to a newbie with no prior experience who is not connected to the internet and have them install it. How about a video player or a music player for starters.

They are going to run into confusing questions, dependencies, and alot of issues with how to actually start the install.

Take that same category of software and have some newbie do it under OSX. It is virtually as easy as dragginging the icon from the program to the hard drive and BOOOOOOOOM it is installed. Or even windows where they put the CD in or even double click on the installer and answer some questions with the click of the mouse.

Under linux you could spend a week trying to resolve all the dependency issues and finally get the package installed only to find out that you can't play such as such video files, that you can't play dvd, or even mp3, etc. Yes there are codecs and libraries out there but the user then has to resolve those issues as well.

That's just one example. But anyone with a lick of common sense will tell you that it is extremely difficult to install programs and they are absolutely correct. The author in this article is assuming greatly and that makes an ass out of you and me.

Linux is horrific when it comes to installing software and in the end you have no idea what you are going to get. You could spend a week or more getting that video package installed and then another week figuring out how to install and where to place those codecs (if they even exist or even work with that video player) only to find the video player crashes, or there's no sound, or the system reports that the sound device is already in use.

On top of that the interfaces tend to look amateurish and often are buggy.

I've been through all that as a linux user. One of the first things I tried to do was install a video player and ran into each of these problems. Friends of mine tried the same thing and only after great difficulty did they get it installed.

Let's also get on the issue of cryptic program (package names). These names are often non-recognizable. This means that the users can't possibly know what to do with them even if they did try to install. For instance, just go through the program selection using FC3's initial install. The names are so cryptic and the explanations (often simple one liners) do a horrible job saying what they do. On top of that a user attempting to install often will not recognize that they have 3-4 packages that they have selected that do the same thing and they couldn't possibly know which is best.

Linux software installation problems are vastly understated in this article and to play mind games with users by claiming something isn't difficult while it absolutely is will only turn off new users when they encounter these issues.

What needs to be done is that there needs to be a universal installer that operates the same on EVERY distro and every release of the distro, period. Nothing precludes the power user from doing it manually or even the old way even with a universal installer. The power user and the average joe are two completely different animals. The user understands life, the universe and everything while the power user understands their digital world. The life of the average Joe does not make them stupid and being a digital knight doesn't make the power user a genius.

So, get that universal distro application installer written, fire the jerks that won't accept it (drop their software) and move on to a world where linux is readily available at the click of a button to the end-user (the average Joe and Jane). And most of all, forget the idea that linux programs are easy to install today, that's one of the biggest myths in the world of computing and within the linux community today.

... and you identify the distribution for the
first example to be Mandrake. A Kitchen-tested
recipe.

But what is to be done about all the half-baked
but helpful folk in the Linux community who only
provide fragments of what is necessary to do the
job?

Or conversely, you follow all the instructions
exactly only to encounter some obscure error and
the response is along the lines of, "Oh, you have
_that one. You can't do that with _that_ one."

So kitchen-tested recipes are constantly an
issue.

How about a kitchen-tested recipes column for
Tux? It would be a place to go where the user had
some reasonable assurance that whatever the procedure
under discussion might be, there is a reasonable
expection of success. Let's say a _guaranteed_
expectation of success.

The way I feel most days with Linux is like the
old Star Trek episode called Spock's Brain, where the
good doctor in the midst of the operation starts to
lose his artificially enhanced ability to do the
operation. He gets it done, but only with the patient's
help. :-)