[Discuss] Firefox with RedHat Fedora

[Murray Strome]

Alan W. Irwin wrote:
> On 2007-01-17 15:42-0800 Murray Strome wrote:
>
>> I agree that LINUX installation really needs to be improved. Though I 
>> don't like Windows very much, at least most programs (except some GPL 
>> ones like OpenOffice and GIMP) are much easier to install and update 
>> on Windows, LINUX can be a big pain.
>
> This is exactly contrary to my experience.  Let me explain.
>
I can give you a contrary example -- something simple like Firefox.  In 
Windows, you don't have to do anything; any time there is an update 
available, you are notified and if you agree, the update is downloaded 
and installed, Firefox is restarted and away you go. It checks for 
compatibilities with the plugins and extensions, updates them if 
required and lets you know if some new versions are available. If they 
cannot be loaded right now, you are then notified when they do become 
available.  Extensions like Java, Flash, etc. are downloaded and 
installed with one or two clicks. In LINUX, you have to go through a lot 
of effort. Then, where are the plugins? For Java and Firefox, I have 
found about five possible places, but I guess none of them are correct 
because in Red Hat, Firefox, Java does not work! (I did get it working 
in Mandriva -- but cannot remember exactly how.)

Any time I have visited my sister and tried to install something on her 
very old Mac (OS 9, I think), except for OpenOffice which was a real 
pain on the Mac, it was extremely simple.

Another example: Koha (library software) -- I could only get it working 
on a very old computer with raw Debian (probably an old distribution).  
The steps I had to follow literally took days to complete, loading all 
the SQL, Python, etc. stuff it needed.  Why can't a package check to see 
what you have installed, then download and install all the missing 
prerequisites and finally install the application?  Some software does a 
good job. I would said that Acroread was one good example until today. I 
have never before had any problem with it, until I tried to install it 
in Red Hat. I haven't succeeded with it.

For the most part, with Kubuntu, Mandriva, Debian and Red Hat, if the 
application is on their distribution list, installation is easy. 
However, usually all these distributions are quite far behind on their 
available versions and lots of things are not available this way. For 
example, acroread is not on the Red Hat list. Even though I installed 
the .rpm version (which doesn't work), it is not shown as an installed 
package, nor is it listed as an available package.  This is just one 
example!

In LINUX, you pretty much have to remove the current version, download 
the new one, and install it (making sure that you have installed the 
prerequisites first).  In Windows, usually (except for GPL) if there are 
any prerequisites, they are downloaded and installed transparently.

I am definitely NOT a Windows fan, and hope I never have a reason to buy 
Vista, but I do hope installation in LINUX becomes much easier!

Murray