I know these are A LOT OF questions and am sorry but anyhow I'd really appreciate some help ;-)

1. Can I use my Windows fonts under Linux? I checked my Windows 2000 fonts folder under Linux but Nautilus doesn't open them. If I can, where do I copy the font files, where does Linux keep its fonts? Where can I download or purchase more fonts if neccesary?

2. I want to use right-to-left languages (specifically Persian(Farsi) and Arabic) but it seems they're not supported. What should I do? (Red Hat 7.2)

3.How do I update my Kernel? (2.4.7-10) Could you provide a link to a detailed explanation, 'to-do's, etc.?

4. I was thinking of upgrading the XFree86 to the newest version (4.2.0). Doing this would do no harm to the installed nVidia display drivers, would it? I mention this because I had to edit the XFree86-4 config file after installing the drivers... And I'm a relative newbie so...?!

5. Suppose I've got a script or program called 'script'. Why one has to type './script' to run it instead of simply 'script'? I read somewhere that this is for security reasons but why should running a program/script without giving a path pose security problems?

6. Also about scripts, I've got this annoying problem about my Perl programs that they never execute all by themselves. I've added '#!/usr/bin/perl' and also changed them to executables but I cannot run them like this: './Script.pl'
Instead I have to type 'perl Script.pl'. Why is this happening?!

Thanks in advance for replying!

Here goes...

1) Yes. You have to set up xfs (the font server, not the filesystem) to use them. Read some stuff <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.2-Manual/ref-guide/s1-x-fonts.html" target="_new">here</A>, <A HREF="http://kb.redhat.com/view.php?eid=215" target="_new">here</A> and <A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Font-HOWTO.html" target="_new">here</A>.

2) Might have to wait a bit. You can try your luck with upgrading to Gnome 2, or KDE 3. Neither has been released yet - eg still in development/testing.

3) RH 7.2 appears to be ok with using up2date (The Update Agent) to upgrade the kernel. Plan B is downloading from a mirror of kernel.org, and compiling from scratch. Read the docs that come in the tar.bz2 package and you should be ok. Check out <A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org" target="_new">www.linuxdoc.org</A> for howtos, etc.

4) Go for it. Besides, if you need to make any changes, you've done it once so you'll be fine the 2nd time, right? :-) On that note though, after upgrading your kernel, you'll need to reinstall the nVidia kernel module.

5) Imagine if your system has been partially compramised - they got your password, but didn't get root, and sitting in your home dir is a script called "ls" that deletes all you user files... It kinda separates the "system" from the user. Just one scenario...

6) When you say you cannot run them, what does it say? It should be fine.

First of all thank you poorboy!

1. I read both of the Red Hat documents concerning truetype fonts (haven't found the time to page through the linuxdoc.org yet, I'll read it tonight) and will try to set xfs to use my Windows fonts. Will post an update as to what happened.

2. It seems I'm in luck (regarding at least Arabic - the degree of Farsi/Persian support in Gnome2 is not clear). I'll wait for both Gnome 2 and KDE 3. Gnome.org's updated schedule says it comes out March 29 so, seems like the wait is worth it.

3&4.I forgot to tell you I'm using a Winmodem (Conexant HCF) so no automatic updates for me :-( Hell, I have to boot Windows to post here ;-) I'll read the howtos and then do the deed.

5. Although I'm not connected yet (hopefully will buy a hardware modem in 3 months) I understand very well now. Makes me think why Windows doesn't support something like this...

6. When I type e.g. './Roman.pl' on the command line, it says: './Roman.pl : bad interpreter : No such file or directory' The odd thing is that I tried 'which perl' and it returned: '/usr/bin/perl' so the '#!/usr/bin/perl' line is correct...As I mentioned before 'perl Roman.pl' works perfectly...

Coupla things...

3&4. You can download the required updates to your windows partition and do them manually. rpm -Uvh. Might take a while over the modem. There's a list of "errata" on the RedHat 7.2 support <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/howto/rhl72.html" target="_new">website</A>. There's a <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/howto/kernel-upgrade/kernel-upgrade.html" target="_new">note</A> about kernel upgrades, too.

6. It seemed odd, so tried using the wrong path, eg #!/usr/sbin/perl and I got that error. It means that the shell (bash) can't find the interperter (perl) to run the script. That suggests that your perl installation is broken. Verify the package using gnorpm. Double check that "#!/usr/bin/perl" line again... Even try a simple one line test script just to be sure (I've stared at typos and not seen them, many times).

1. I verified the perl RPM and it's OK. Also if 'perl Roman.pl' works, it means perl itself is doing fine, right? I double-checked my '#!/usr/bin/perl' line and no problem... Maybe I should add something else?! BTW '#!/bin/bash' works in normal sh scripts...

2. Setting up TTF fonts was a breeze. I copied my entire fonts folder (26 MB) first but 'ttmkfdir' aborted every time. Then I only copied fonts I liked and needed and it worked like a charm. Thanks again for the links and advice!

I dunno about the perl thing. It works fine on both my Mandrake 8 and RedHat 7.2 machines...

Like I said, it seems that bash can't find the perl interpreter, but if 'ls -l /usr/bin/perl' shows you an executable perl, everything should be sweet. I must be missing something, but at least it's not a show stopper.

Good to see the rest of it working.