Heres an example of the usefulness of Debian. I want to try out a package called geda. Under Debian, I go: apt-get install geda done deal! For Redhat, I go to geda web site and this is what I find: ------------------------ Program Package Name Download gEDA/gaf libstroke-0.5.1-1rh.i386.rpm http | ftp libstroke-devel-0.5.1-1rh.i386.rpm http | ftp libgdgeda-1.8-1.i386.rpm http | ftp libgeda-20020527-1.i386.rpm http | ftp libgeda-devel-20020527-1.i386.rpm http | ftp geda-symbols-20020527-1.i386.rpm http | ftp geda-gschem-20020527-1.i386.rpm http | ftp geda-gnetlist-20020527-1.i386.rpm http | ftp geda-gsymcheck-20020527-1.i386.rpm http | ftp geda-utils-20020527-1.i386.rpm http | ftp geda-docs-20020527-1.i386.rpm http | ftp rpm notes: * The rpm packages were created by Wojciech Kazubski. Thank you, Wojciech. * The packages were compiled for guile-1.4. The RH distributions, including RH7.3, still use guile-1.3.4 so an upgrade is necessary. The compatible binary package for guile-1.4 can be found at RawHide or its local mirror. ---------------------- geda does not appear to be on any RH disks. I tried apt-get install -s geda with my freshrpm.net apt-get setup, and that didn't work. I don't care how ugly the initial Debian install is(dselect was pretty bad). Debian looks like it can save me a lot of time.