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hello! i have just installed linux on my
machine (easy!) but i don't know how to
install a program in linux (can you tell
that i'm new at this? lol.) can someone
help?
It depends on what sort of file you
downloaded. Some are precompiled binaries,
usually with file extensions like .rpm, .deb
and .tgz. Sometimes you can only get the
source code which you have to compile into a
binary yourself, these files normally end
with .tar.gz. There are instructions
contained within the archive explaining how
to install. It usually ends up going along
the lines of:
$ tar -zxvf programname.tar.gz
$ cd programname
$ ./configure
$ make
# make install
0 
unless there are no alternatives, use rpm.
if a sofware package of your interest is available in tar and rpm formats, choose rpm.www.rpm.org
man rpm
0
sometimes it is distribution specific as well, so what distro are you using? also, for .rpms:
rpm -I package.rpm
(if you return an error try it as root)
www.linuxteens.com
0
Suse's graphical environment is KDE based by default.
You should be using Suse's tools to install and configure programs (it is yast2 I think) - not downloading arbitrary pkgs and even building stuff yourself. Certainly not when you are new to GNU/Linux.
You should read the documentation that came along with the many thousands of programs available with your Suse distro and also the docs available at the Suse website.
If you do not want to wreck your system stay well away from using raw rpm commands and source pkg building until you are much more familiar with your system.
If there is some specific program you want to install for which no Suse 9.1 pkg exists, I suggest you defer attempting to install it until you don't need to ask questions like the last one ;-)
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i have been using unix/linux for over 20 years and some of the above answers might even make me nervous about installing RPM packages
First, as a linux newbie (also true for oldbies), you must be facile with google.
"linux package manager introduction" will include http://www.bb-zone.com/SLGFG/chapter33.htmlUsing "raw" rpm is fairly safe if you observe a few groundules. rpm performs sanity checks before it will install a package. The groundrules are: "do not over ride the sanity checks" - unless you know what you are doing.
Having said that, using a GUI interface to rpm such as yast will make life easier.
google and learn
0
"i have been using unix/linux for over 20 years and some of the above answers might even make me nervous about installing RPM packages
Spencer has not been and maybe you underestimate just how alien a GNU/Linux distro will seem to a complete newbie. There have been posts here before from newbies who have gotten themselves in trouble by downloading and trying to install stuff that was already available on the installation media. They often do not realise that a Linux distro is nothing like a Windows 'distro' and probably already supplies everything they will need.
The whole point of yast is that it knows what is available on the installation media (and probably also checks for bugfixes/security updates) and will minimise the possibility of conflicts and inconsistencies: Spencer would probably prefer to install suse 9.1 rpms that religiously put files in the places other suse 9.1 rpms expect them to be, that run suse 9.1 pre/post install update scripts as necessary, that understand the suse 9.1 initscript and system configuration quirks, that put menu entries and icons etc. in the right places for the suse 9.1 desktop, that provide binaries that are built where necessary according to any special requirements of the suse 9.1 patched kernel and whatever other modifications suse may have made to other software...
RPM sanity checks are only as good as the person that built the rpm (even distro maintainers make mistakes) and encouraging complete newbies to install rpms no matter where they may have originated is neither necessary nor healthy. The first thing a newbie needs to do is understand the way his specific distro works and how to make good use of the vast wealth of software already supplied with and built to work with that distro, not how the underlying infrastructure works so that he can immediately bypass and possibly compromise all the hard work done by the distro maintainers.
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