YDL Switcher questions

[Christopher Brown]

I've been using YDL as a hobby for 3 years now and attempting to use it for 
a main OS for the past 1 year. I'm to the point that I can use it for 
recreational use and I only need to switch back to Mac OS to do the really 
serious work. Before I ask my questions let me say, for all the hype Linux 
isn't really better than Mac OS. Why would I use it then? Well for 
day-to-day email and chat and coding it's a nice environment. Why then 
would I switch? Well, because I like Linux, Hate Window$ and am starting to 
resent Apple's childlike interface. I believe in open source software and I 
think there's hope for the OS and I want to learn as much as possible so IF 
the day ever comes that I need to use it as a bread-and-butter OS I will be 
able to. Anyhow, on to my questions.

1. Is Gnome a beta or does it really have that many bugs or am I just not 
capable of setting it up properly? Xine locks up every I'm in Gnome, 
Evolutions is just a horrible experience (too bad too, it's the nicest 
looking app of it's kind and I really wanted to use it), and generally 
application features either don't work or don't exist.

2. (possibly the answer to #1) Are some programs built to run ONLY under 
Gnome or ONLY under KDE? I notice KOrganizer is missing all it icons under 
Gnome and doesn't work very well in Gnome either(as is the case with many 
things).

3. Does the clock work? Ever?

4. Keyboard shortcuts. Where can I find a good guide to learn keyboard 
shortcuts? In Mac OS I can hit the command-Tab buttons to cycle through 
open apps, com-sft-Q logs me out, com-sft-N creates a folder or directory, 
etc., etc., etc... Is there a good guide for that sort of thing. I already 
know that replacing the com key with the ctrl key works for most things, 
but there has got to be more. Is it possible to define those kinds of 
things?

5. Audio editing - Video editing: What is available? I tried Audacity, but 
I simply does not work on the new Aluminum PowerBooks. I have compiled from 
source, tried the rpm and have had extensive help from this community and 
the Audacity community. Great looking program but, it simply does not work 
on this hardware. Video editing software is a must if I'm ever to make 
Linux a main OS. Like I said I need the bread-and-butter apps to call Linux 
home. I haven't found anything that works on PPC.

6. This one is a bit complicated. How does one "port" an app? I would love 
to be self sufficient with source code. Relying on the PPC Linux community 
to port an app can be a long wait. Just the sheer lack of people that run 
PPCLinux and the percent of that group that needs the same apps I do, then 
the percent of that group that can port an app... it's damn a small number.


Thanks for any assistance,
Christopher

P.S. I do NOT mean this to be a flame in any way. If you need more specific 
info from me to answer a question please ask me.