Having allowed this above posts stew on their own for awhile, and nothing said by others to change the flavor or thrust thus far, I will proceed to address this thread as a generic base for discussing aspects of using Linux as an alternative category, with specific distributions and alternatives as child boards. In other words, comments, issues, and observations related to Linu8x distributions in general will be discussed on this thread,
To begin with, let's assume you have moved beyond the stage of acquiring a live CD and booting it, and have installed that distribution on your hard drive. If you haven't gotten that far, look for your distribution as one of the child boards here, or pursue that course elsewhere first. Then come back. Because having your Linux distribution on a hard drive is pretty much necessary if you are going to be making changes or updates.
Linux distributions tend to fall into three groups: Debian distributions, RPM distributions, and others. Debian distributions, like Debian, Knoppix, and Ubuntu, can be updated using the .DEB package concept, which automatically find supporting libraries as needed during updates. RPM distributions, such as Red Hat, Fedora, and Mandrake, do not automatically find supporting packages, so the sequence of updating may be more critical when it comes to adding new libraries.
Everything about each distribution of Linux is under constant review and modification, and major.minor updates are only occasional. But if you want to make sure you always have the latest and best that is out there, you can attempt an update as you see fit. This is a manual step, not something that happens whenever your Windows or Microsoft Updater software kicks in. Since I am only dealing with two debian distributions at this point, I will only cover how you can do this with them. If the method is different for RPM, I will let someone else comment on that.
Since I have little experience in this area (yet), my fumbling steps may serve as a guide to others. First, I have read that if you find a ,DEB package, you can click on it and it will automatically download and install. Well and good, but I haven't tried that yet. So I am just passing that tip along for what it is worth. Right now I am just looking at my new Knoppix install, and wondering if I have the latest version of WINE on it. It doesn't tell me, because the setup process assumes I am using WINE 0.9 Beta, then complains because the actual software is not a match. I don't know what I have, but presently WINE 0.9.47 is available, and of course I could opt to move to one of the commercial versions that are also available. But, my goal is just to make sure I am on the latest free version out there.
I searched for WINE LINUX, and found the WINE HQ web site, and following the links there, looked for Knoppix as one of the distributions for which a .DEB package has already been prepared. No such luck. So I just picked the Debian group from the download page, and it turns out that there are just a series of separate folders being specified for the target location. Ubuntu is particularly unique in this regard. It appears that as Ubuntu is being revised (and it is one of the fastest changing distributions right now), they are adding new folders to support new features, so that the old and new aspects can continue to reside there side by side.
But the instructions on that page give you other clues as well. First, though they don't really telll you how, you need to be able txo have administrator priveleges to install new packages. They do tell you that you need to use a Terminal windows, and that is easily done, But if you try to log in as root when your PC boots into Knoppix, it will refuse to let you. You have to log in under your user account and password. And when you open a Terminal window, you are presented with a $ prompt, meaning you are logged in by default under that same user account with limited pivileges. To get administrator privliges temporarily, you can enter
su (which stands for Super User), then when asked, enter the password for root. Now you can make changes.
The following information was copied vebatum from the Wine HQ web site:
Distributions Debian Linux
Debian and Debian-based distributions, such as Ubuntu, utilize a special tool for managing packages known as APT. APT is able to automagically install all of the needed dependencies for a software package, as well as keep the package up to date, by scanning what are known as APT repositories. Debian-based distributions have their own repositories of software, many of which include Wine, however we keep our own repository of the latest available packages here for download.
There used to be graphical instructions here, however we have found that the terminal commands are actually simpler to describe and quicker for the user to input. Because the commands below use sudo, you may have to enter your user password after hitting enter.
Adding the WineHQ APT Repository:
First, open a terminal window. Then add the repository's key to your system's list of trusted APT keys by copy and pasting the following:
wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Next, add the repository to your system's list of APT sources:
Going further down the same page (pass the individual distributions mentioned), I also found this:
Alternatively, you can install from the terminal by running 'sudo apt-get update' to update APT's package information and then 'sudo apt-get install wine'.
It turns out that running the first sudo command will attempt to update all your packages at once. and the second will make sure that WINE is installed. So that turned out to be an easy way to get the lastest updates, and to make sure WINE is installed. This should be an edge up and forward when it comes to further updates.
Note that instead of trying to type in the above commands by hand, you can switch back and forth between your web browser session and the terminal console and do a copy and paste to insert the command lines shown in bold above. Press enter, and each should execute. That makes it a lot easier than trying to retype each one exactly by hand.