Bunch of newbie questions....

[JesterMania]

Hi, there's been quite a few questions bothering me about Linux and I've decided to attempt to clear them up here. Sorry if it's kinda long, it's my 1st post, just wanna get everything cleared up that's all:

1. Can I recompile any Linux program and have it workable on Linux for PC, Linux for Mac, and Linux for PlayStation 2? Does the source ever need to change in order for the program to work on versions of Linux for different platforms? Or can I just simply recompile the program?

2. Does Linux support that "AC'97 sound card" that's built into my Soyo SY-7VCA2 motherboard? I know Mandrake 6 didn't but that might have changed.

3. Is it possible to install Linux on the primary partition and install Windows Me on a secondary partition? I want to do this (instead of the reverse) because I intend to have Win Me as sort of a "transition" stage and once I've become totally familiar with Linux, to just wipe the secondary Win Me partition and expand the primary Linux partition to fill the rest of the hard drive making my computer 100% pure Linux.

4. Does MSN Messenger work correctly in Linux via WINE? Any good WINE compatability lists out there?

5. To install an RPM under Linux Mandrake, I double-click on the RPM and it says it's installed successfully. Now where has the program installed to? It's not like Windows where a set of shortcuts are present. Where can I find out where the executable has been installed to?

6. Does the HP CD-Writer Plus 7200i work on Linux? I gotta burn stuff quite often...

7. Any QuickTime players available for Linux?

Ack...sorry for all the questions, maybe I should've split them up but that'd be too many separate posts....oh well, big thanks to anyone who can answer at least some of these questions.

[element-x]

1. I believe that the actual source code would have to be ported for each platform, in order to have it compile on each.

2. I'm sure, since the release of Mandrake 6 (it's now at 8.1 I believe) that the kernel and/or alsa/oss will have support for your on-board sound.

3. I've never dealt with Windows ME before, but I believe that it can be done, if your Linux Distribution of choice doesn't automatically do it, you would just have to add an extra entry to your lilo.conf so that you can dual boot.

4. I'm not quite sure you'd want to use WINE for MSN Messenger, I believe that one of the following: Everybuddy, Gabber or Gaim will be able to handle logging onto the MSN Messenger service.

5. If you've run `updatedb` before, you will be able to run `locate <file>` and you can search for the executable. I also believe that you can run a query via the rpm system, to see where each of the files in any specific package was installed to.

6. You can compile ide-scsi (and generic scsi) support into your kernel, or as modules, and have your CD-Writer working in no time.

7. I know of some quicktime libraries, and on linuxtoday.com I even saw some sort of program which plays quicktime movies via wine...I'm not for certain, but here's a link to the article. *edit* It seems it has a cost to it, but I suppose you could run windows binary of quicktime via wine, if you needed it for free.
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2001/09/13/crossover_parttwo.html

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover/


I hope that these answers give you a start on what you want to know, I'm sure there will be some sort of follow up by others here at the LNO. Good Luck with everything. :D

[ 01 October 2001: Message edited by: JAdrock ]