GNOME configuration questions/musings

["Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom" <carls@agritech.com>]

        I've been trying to use Linux as my desktop system at home recently;
with rather marginal success. I'm using RH 6.1, 2.2.12-20 (stock), and
GNOME/E or FVWM or FVWM2.
        X crashes on a pretty regular basis (GNOME more so); finding the
configurator for Enlightenment is difficult (tho I think I found it
finally); I still have to load the CD-ROM module by hand; wish doesn't work;
and setting up a mail system for dial-up is still pretty far over my head.
this doesn't count the configuration pains I've gotten over so far.
        lets face it, Linux is still not for the average home user. I've
been using it in servers for over a year now; with good success. Desktop
usage still leaves a lot to be desired, tho. I'm hardly afraid of config
files; but X has possibly the most obfuscated configuration file
arrangements I've seen. (at least with Sendmail there's only 1 main config
file to worry about; and it's usually commented pretty heavily).
        I think a good chunk of blame can be placed on Red Hat for really
fscking up v6.1's confiuration. I've had some limited experience with other
Linux desktop systems (Caldera 2.2 and a Debian 2.0.36 box); and never had
this much trouble. (then again, I never tried nearly as much with them).
        
        point by point:
        wish doesn't work. gives an error something like 'no $DISPLAY
environment variable'. I've tried chewie's suggestion of 'export
$DISPLAY=:0.0' (and many variations thereon); and it always still gives me
'errno=111 can't connect to display :0.0' (or whatever $DISPLAY I've set)
when I try starting wish. I've tried looking through the system
configuration files, trying to find where $DISPLAY is supposed to be set;
but no luck. This problem may also be related to the problems I have with X
crashing, since I think I've seen a similar error message a few times after
X crashes.

        what do people use for an ICQ workalike program? I've been trying
GnomeICU; but it requires GNOME (and I prefer FVWM2 in a lot of ways), and
it crashes on a regular basis, usually crashing GNOME, often crashing X (I
need to take this up with the author, since I can cause crashes repeatably).
I'd like to find a reliable ICQ workalike that runs happily under FVWM/FVWM2.

        note: GNOME will run on FVWM; but it will not be happy. :)

        mail configuration for a dial-up system...  I'll ask lots of
questions once I've found & read the relevant HOWTO. :)

        netscape crashes -- this in and of itself doesn't surprise me. why
it brings down X in the process, does. this may go back to the $DISPLAY problem.

ok, enough rambling for now... I'm going to go poke at it some more.
Carl Soderstrom