>> I've got it all straightened out *now*. ;-)
>>
>> My problem wasn't actually "getting Linux to work", but rather "getting
>> Linux to do what I want". But in my experience, Linux package managers
>> are often very awkward to use. You know - the whole "I want to install
>> this one package, and no I don't want to also upgrade 3,657 other
>> packages to a different version".
> 
> openSUSE's package management seems to do pretty well with this.  If I 
> want to install Virtualbox OSE, I just run "yast2 -i" (for a graphical 
> way to do this) or "zypper in virtualbox-ose" in a terminal window.
> 
> The package manager figures out what's needed, resolves all dependencies, 
> and installs the necessary packages.

Yeah. It's great when it works like that. But sometimes it decides that 
it wants to install version X of the thing you asked for, which depends 
on a completely different version of something critical - GCC, the Linux 
kernel, libc, whatever. Obviously, replace that and you have to replace 
half the software on your HD. :-}

> While not as common as it used to be, dll hell still (to what I hear, not 
> being a Windows user) happens.  But much of the time packages include the 
> version of the DLLs they need and use them rather than the installed 
> system libraries.

This, of course, completely defies the entire purpose of shared 
libraries! :-D

>> Plus getting hold of a human
>> over IRC seems to be like getting blood out of a stone. I guess
>> everybody is in a different timezone to me?
> 
> Try online forums instead - you're already familiar with them.  Ubuntu 
> and openSUSE have very vibrant online communities.
> 
> I never use IRC to ask for help - just never needed that sort of 
> immediacy.

No - this was for help with the open-source project I'm trying to 
contribute to, not for Linux. ;-)

>> It's sorted now, it just took rather a lot of effort considering the
>> triviallity of what I actually set out to do. ;-)
> 
> Which was what, out of curiosity?

I added a section to the user manual. (Which is written in something 
called "docbook", by the way.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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