Why do some distros have SH opened by Kwrite? [Install themesnot through running SH but through the install themes option in right-clickon desktop ...]
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From: Whiskers on 20 Nov 2009 10:13 On 2009-11-20, RodMcKay <NoJunkMail(a)No.com> wrote: [...] > I've dl a ton of themes of all kinds, from desktop looks to controls, > window borders, icons, etc., and they all install from the desktop > instead with no fuss, no muss <raspberry>: > > Right-click on the desktop, and under the theme tab towards the bottom > of the dialogue box there is an install button. Navigate to the > tar.gz file and select it and off it goes. Easy as pie. The theme > will either install, or won't, giving you an error message on why not. > But the valid ones do install in a moment. [...] Reading between the lines, I get the impression that you are following the Windows tradition for acquiring software: find a web page with something on it to download, download that to the 'desktop', find the icon, and click every which way till something happens - and hope nothing bad happens. That isn't the best method. Virtually all Linux distros have 'software management' tools the like of which Microsoft can only dream about, and dedicated 'repositories' of binary packages prepared ready for that version of that distro and intended to be installed (or uninstalled) using that distro's usual software management tools. Usually the packages are 'digitally signed' as well as having a hash published by the repository, so that if you trust the repository you don't need to worry about the package being compromised by anyone with malicious intent. As the repositories are usually managed by the same people who build the distro in the first place, trust should be a foregone conclusion. As you've discovered, you can take the Windows approach to getting new software, but then you run up against the same problems as you are exposed to in that other OS - plus the probability that some of the software you get by that method will not be compiled for your particular distro, or indeed not compiled at all, and may also 'depend' on other stuff being present which you will have to check for yourself whereas the distro's software management tools and repositories usually automate such things. As has been said elsewhere in this thread, you would be wise to become familiar with the workings of your chosen distro, and with the Unix/Linux 'philosophy' in general, before moving yourself away from your familiar environment - and then get more experience with it yourself before even thinking of 'helping' anyone less confident than yourself to change their operating system. 'Sticking plaster' such as finding a 'theme' that resembles the appearance of a Windows 'desktop', is not a short-cut or a substitute for doing the job properly. You'll just waste your time trying to get Linux to behave like Windows - which it never will, nor should it. Don't compare moving from Windows to Linux to changing your Ford family car for a Honda family car. A better analogy might be changing from a family car to a kit of parts that can be built into anything from a moped to a moon-base. -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~
From: J.O. Aho on 21 Nov 2009 06:27 RodMcKay wrote: > And thanks for pointing out that the security risks are the same when > dl a tar.gz, etc., to what we have in Windows. Good point to know. > Then how do you get around to these problems, though: > > - people who don't have internet access They get it from a friend who has downloaded it for them or from a magazine CD/DVD. > - source goes down and you can't dl? Most of the time there are more than one valid source to get it from, to get a source code, I don't care if it's in a RedHat source RPM or a Debian source deb or if it's from Gentoo repository, all of the actors are trusted distributions. > - for ease of using and dl a tar.gz, etc., do you use same approach > of scanning for viruses? There aren't any real viruses to Linux (there are trojans, but that ain't the same thing as viruses), if you download something from a source that you don't trust, go through the source code before you compile it. -- //Aho
From: J.O. Aho on 22 Nov 2009 16:25 RodMcKay wrote: > Fortunately, I did find reference to the linux version of ClamWin > which is a project I'm already familiar with. > Various sites all over said that the av apps mostly check for Window$ > viruses. Be warned, they may give false positives when you scan your Linux system. > I don't know how to be root in Fedora. Unlike PSLinuxOS which tells > you right up front to log on as Guest or Root (but doesn't warn > against how bad root it!! <shudder>), Most of the login managers nowadays by default deny root login, you need to make changes in the login managers configuration to allow root login. > In terminal, I > found that "exit" gets me out of root, too, so stumbling upon that was > probably a good thing. You can also press ctrl-d to exit, and if you search something you have done before in the terminal, you can press ctrl-r and type something that was on that line, say "find", and pressing ctrl-r again will find the time before the last time you used "find". There is nothing like that for GUI, that remebers how you moved your mouse around and klicked on different buttons. > And now there's Trojans. I knew that phishing was still a problem > with Linux, but Trojans, too. Well, more research. That's okay. > Gotta be easier than the full-time job having Window$ is! <g> Trojans are the simples of them all, just makes something to look like a reall app and then do something bad, those you could find on the C64 back in the early 80's. -- //Aho
From: J.O. Aho on 25 Nov 2009 01:00 RodMcKay wrote: > On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:25:31 +0100, "J.O. Aho" <user(a)example.net> > wrote: >>> And now there's Trojans. I knew that phishing was still a problem >>> with Linux, but Trojans, too. Well, more research. That's okay. >>> Gotta be easier than the full-time job having Window$ is! <g> >> Trojans are the simples of them all, just makes something to look like a reall >> app and then do something bad, those you could find on the C64 back in the >> early 80's. > > Do you use some sort of av for trojans in Linux? Trojans are simple to make and difficult to detect, just avoid those shady places to download things, if you find a application on the net, try to first install it from your normal repositories. -- //Aho
From: TJ on 25 Nov 2009 09:15
RodMcKay wrote: > > Ah, okay. Good advice. I don't yet have one of those ("normal > repositories") as I haven't dl anything yet besides a few themes, so > this will be good to start working on. > Each distro maintains its own set of repositories, usually in several locations. Mandriva, for example, maintains many repository mirrors in several countries around the world. That is where you should always go first when looking to install new software. The software on the repositories has already been compiled and "integrated" (for lack of a better term) into that distro's overall system. Ever hear of "dll hell" on Windows systems? Well, something similar exists on improperly managed Linux systems, only with them it's called "dependency hell." (Wikipedia explains it fairly well. Look it up.) Using the repositories avoids that mess. And if you think that downloading and installing themes is the same as managing software, you indeed have a lot to learn. BTW, that was one of the things I didn't like about the live CDs. Admittedly it's been a few years and they may have changed, but I don't remember being able to install and use any software that wasn't already on the CD, unless you took the extra step to actually install the distro to the hard drive from the CDs that offered that option. That was the point, as I remember it. The live CDs were a way to try out a Linux distro without disturbing your existing hard drive. TJ |