Linux [redhat and I suspect others] annoyance

Let me first say that I really like RedHat as a company and a
distribution.  Generally it works very well and "solves" some of the
problems that most new users have with Linux.  The Bluecurve desktop,
while much derided, goes a long way to clearing up the general clutter
that results from many of Linux's freedoms.  

Other great distributions include Mandrake, SuSE, and Slackware (always
dear to me).

Anyway one thing that is annoying about RedHat is that the graphical
package update tools only work with downloading from RedHat's Redhat
Network or for loading packages from their disks.  

SuSE's YAST tool let you specify loading from any FTP site, loading from
the main SuSE package site, loading from a CD/Disk, or loading from a
specified directory.  Slackware's pkgtool allows for loading a package
from a specified directory as well.  RedHat has no such option.

Perhaps the Annoyance book can talk about some ways to update programs
graphically (for those users that don't want to touch the command line
(I know how to do a rpm --install and I can compile and install programs
as well... some users can't and sometimes doing it through a graphical
front end is just nice).

Perhaps cover the special circumstances with SuSE's, Mandrake's and
Slackware's built-in tools and then detail how to download and install
and use apt-rpm and the graphical tool, Synaptic.

Just a thought-

Jim Jones

*All opinions are my own and not those of anyone else or any other
institution.  No one else would want them*