Questions about programs under Linux.

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Anna:

I know others have provided you some responses, but perhaps hearing these 
things in different ways from different folks will be helpful. So, here's 
my contribution ...


 On Fri, 8 Mar 2002, Anna Schneider wrote:

> First, my understanding is that while Linux comes with some programs under 
> it, many other have to be downloaded off the web.  Is this correct?  

Well, yes, but this is the same for any system, right? Windows, for 
example, doesn't come with the Adobe PDF viewer called Adobe Reader, nor 
does it come with Win Amp or the ACB Tuner. I think you should expect that 
it will forever be the case that you'll need to get some software off the 
net, no matter who builds your system at first.

> 1.  Does any virus protection exist for Linux and if so, what programs 
> would people recommend and how can I get them?

Wrong question. You're showing your history with Windows. It's not a virus 
checker you want and need on linux. Rather, you want to be sure to 
practice safe computing by not opening the virtual door to your computer 
to anyone who might come wandering bye on the Internet. This is called 
firewalling, and it's a lot like having a lock on the front door of your 
house. Fortunately, the default Red Hat installation, these days, is to 
start with the lock locked. So, this is an issue you won't have to worry 
about at first. You'll find you can get out and do anything you need to do 
on the net just fine. And, by the time you need to open your door to 
someone else, you'll know more about linux and what's involved.

> > > 2.  I want to get the Emacs editor.
Included, by default, in the Red Hat installation.

> then, if I want to fill out my Emacs package even more, with the Dismal 
> Spreadsheet for example, do I have to go download it too?
A ha! You don't mean emacs, you mean emavcspeak, and ytou want to try to 
use the dismal spread sheet with emacs and emacspeak.

You will need to retrieve the emacspeak rpm, and install emacspeak using 
the rpm command. You can download the latest emacspeak rpm from:

	http://emacspeak.sf.net

But, before you can use emacspeak, you'll have to decide how it's going to 
coexist on your system with speakup. It certainly can coexist nicely, but 
there are some issues to address. Here are some of them:

a.)	Emacspeak and speakup cannot share the same speech synthesizer at 
the same time unless you patch your installation. This is not beginner's 
work. Let's not go further down this road unless we have to.

b.)	If you have a second speech synthesizer, you're home free. Have 
speakup talk through one, and emacspeak through the other, and you're on 
your way. Now, you should know that you have extra work to do to get 
emacspeak talking with anything other than DEC Talk. For example, if you 
want emacspeak to use the IBM ViaVoice software speech, you must first get 
and install it, then install emacspeak and then patch emacspeak to get the 
two working together. In the process you may lose the ability to play 
other sound files and streams while emacspeak is running with ViaVoice. 
Please note I sayd may and not will. It just depends.

c.)	Once you've taken care of the above, you can download and compile 
(see below) dismal. You'll also need to edit your emacs configurations to 
get it to work with dismal. Pwersonally, I would advise you to learn a bit 
about using linux before diving into this. My advice is to come back to 
this project after you've used linux for a few months. Don't start here, 
in other words.

 > > 3.  Are there ways to open Word and Excel programs in 
Linux? 
Not exactly. You don't open these "programs." Rather, you use a linux 
program to convert their data files into something you can read using 
linux programs.

> 4.  Will I have to be compliling things before I use them and does Linux 
> usually come with these complers or do I have to go find them too?

Your system will come with everything you need to compile programs. Think 
of it like getting a new suit. Windows people get their new programs from 
the one size fits all rack. Linux people go to the tailor and get a custom 
fit by compiling. Usually, compiling is as simple as the following four 
steps:

a.)	Uncompress the archive file you downloaded into a 
directory--usually with a command like:

	tar -xzpf [archive.name]

b.)	 cd into that directory.

c.)	type ./configure 

d.) when configuration finishes, type ./make

e.) When make finishes type ./make install

Simple, huh?

> > 5.  What is the most recent version of Lynx?  Is it considered to be 
> equivalent to Internet Explorer 4.0 or better?
Your Red Hat system will come with Lynx 2.8.4rel.1 (17 Jul 2001). This is 
a bit beyond the official lynx release of 2.8.3, but it's stable and works 
well. As a blind user, though, you're going to need some special settings 
to get it working comfortably. For example, by default lynx doesn't use 
the system cursor and just parks it at the bottom right corner of the 
screen. Not very helpful, imho. I've included my lynx.cfg file to get you 
started. Just pop it into /etc and your lynx experience will be pretty 
good right off the bat. Be sure you're root when you do that, though.

As to your question of whether Lynx is better the Microsoft Exploiter, 
well, did you really mean to start a war here? <grin>

Ask on this list, and we'll tell you it is, I think. At least, I suspect 
most of us will tell you that. But, what I think you really wanted to ask 
is what things lynx does well and doesn't do at all that Exploiter does 
do. That's a more realistic, less opinion prone, discussion. Let's just 
say that lynx is much faster than Exploiter at loading pages. And, if you 
edit your .mailcap and .mime files appropriately, and get Real Player for 
linux and the talking real player downloaded and installed (both available 
on the speakup web site), you'll find you can play all kinds of internet 
audio streams very well indeed. What doesn't lynx do? Well, it doesn't do 
javascript, and there are a lot of web sites these days that don't want 
your money or your business if you don't do javascript.

> actually.  If I need another web browser in addition to Lynx, do any exist 
> for Linux?
Not really. Not that we can really use, anyway. Though this one called 
netrik that we've been discussing the last few days looks promissing.

> 6.  And last I hope and this is just a point of clarification, when you 
> all talk about telnetting and ftyping and all that, you are doing from 
> your machines right?  Do you have to dial in first to do those things from 
> your machine or how does that work?
It just depends on how you connect to the internet. If your internet 
connection is made by dialing over a modem, that's what you'll do with 
linux. If you have a cable connection, or perhaps dsl, lucky you. You'll 
configure it once, and then it's just always there waiting to serve you.