Here's probably a really easy question. Are packages from one distro compatible with others? For instance lets say that I've bought a full edition of SuSE with all the trimmings would I be able to install all those packages that came with it onto lets say a mandrake or redhat basic install?

Yes, it shouldn't be a problem. They are linux based files, as long as you have the extracting tool for it, then no problem. I do it all the time.

yeah most install packages for linux comes in either tar.gz format or RPM so either way they can be used on all distros.

then it's a matter of the kernel (/me finx) wether or not the prog will actually run correctly.

but the
should be more help to u than me....yeah I know he's already spoken....I do read the topics you know...

and installed libraries...

installing (updating) libraries can be a pain in the [censored]

Yes it is, but you do what ya gonna do.

On the most part it shouldn't be a problem at all, but on slackware that's where it's only problem comes in at. It's got a rather weak packaging system, but things should still work properly in most cases.