On Sat, 09 May 1998, you wrote:
>Except...unlike linux, with Winblows, OS/2, or MacOS, you acquire a bit of
>software and simply click on an install icon (or type "install" at a CLI)
>or some minor variation and the new software automatically installs and
>provides you with easily accessible icons for starting and using the new
True, and somewhat useful in that environment.
Leaving the iconic setup as an option is preferable, I think. Since
Linux is a Unix and not a Windoze, many things may get installed
in places like /usr/local/bin and you type their name into an xterm and
(voila) :) they run.
If you're used to other systems, then yes, having an icon to start
whatever app you want is a good thing. If you're used to a command line,
then, having icons and/or menu entries for every conceivable piece of
software on your system is, well, just clutter. (You should see my
brother's Windows 95 setup. He 'collects' s/w, and his start menu in W95
is so cluttered with apps and tools that half the time you can't find
what it is you're looking for.)
>should never HAVE to take a torturous route of configuring this and
>that just to make a game icon appear on the GUI or be easily available
>from the GUI, for instance. It should be automatic upon installing the
Perhaps. Some window managers make this process a bit easier; for
instance, configuring KDE is a lot easier, I think, than editing/writing
..fvwmrc or other startup files and menu entries, etc.
>I don't know about this. For instance, I installed the RPM for DOOM that
>comes with the RedHat 5.0 CD distribution. Even though I installed the
>RPM, there is no icon for DOOM anywhere. There is no menu item for DOOM
>anywhere accessible from my XFree GUI. Apparently, I have to take some
That, however, is a good and useful point. Redhat includes things that
some other distributions do not (and vice versa). However, the menu
entries are usually not in sync with what actually is installed, and
some menu entries point to software that doesn't get installed. This is
in my opinion a bug. It's not enough just to bring in a window manager
with sample .whateveritisrc files, and not modify them to reflect what
s/w is provided.
But since Linux comprises several window managers, and W95,OS/2, Mac
only have one (generally), making these changes for different window
managers is probably going to be a royal mess, which may be why it isn't
done. You'd end up with several different RPMs for the software, one for
each window manager, each of which would contain patch entries to add
the appropriate icons / menu entries. I wonder if it is worth it.
KDE has something windows does too, apparently, but I have yet to try it
out -- and that's an auto app finder. Someday, I'll see what that
does... :)
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David E. Fox Tax Thanks for letting me
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