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RE: Long Install
Authored by: vasi on Jun 17, '02 10:50:01AM

Fink packages only take long to install if you compile them from source (ie: 'fink install packagename'). If you did that for Mac apps like Photoshop, that would take several days too--but you can't anyhow, since Photoshop and the rest aren't open source.

Happily, Fink also has 'binaries' for most packages, these are basically the Fink equivalent of just downloading normal Mac apps. There are two standard ways to use the binary distribution, apt-get and dselect. And of course you can just use the "Binary" menu in FinkCommander.

Dselect has something resembling a GUI, it lets you browse packages. Apt-get is good when you want just one package, and you know what it is already. Suppose you want to get a web browser--typical usage of apt-get is like this:

# Make sure you have the newest version of Fink
> fink selfupdate
> sudo apt-get update
# Make sure your packages are all the newest versions
> sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
> fink update-all
# Look for browsers
> fink apropos browser
dillo               Small simple web browser
links               Lynx-like text WWW browser with tables
lynx               Console based web browser
mozilla               Web browser and mail reader
# Install what you like
> sudo apt-get install dillo

And then it will just download, and install, it shouldn't take any longer than it would take you to download any other program.

Dave



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