[luau] version question

[Charles Lockhart]

2 questions, really.

1. I'm primarily a Redhat user.  Every once in a while, I upgrade, 
usually about 3-6 months after a new release has come out.  And I have 
multiple machines, so I have the convenience of upgrading them one at a 
time, so while my primary machine is still running 7.3, I have a couple 
other machines that are running 9.
     The problem I'm running into, is that for me, 9 seems really 
different to 7.3.  A lot of the tools I was used to using in 7.3 (like 
Xconfigurator or gnorpm for instance, I've had problems with the similar 
programs that come with 8) aren't there in 9 (or maybe I'm just stupid 
and can't find them).
     Then there's the loss of functionality.  RH9 seems completely 
devoid of the ability to play mpeg files.  It kind of blew me away.
     So how are you supposed to cope?  I'm really busy doing stuff.  It 
seems kind of unreasonable to force me to learn a bunch of new programs 
(some of which I like a lot less) just to upgrade everything.

2. Is there a way to do an install that would combine rh7.3 and rh9? 
Preferably an easy way?  One of the things I like about 7.3 is that when 
I do a full install, I have access to both gnome and kde apps.  I like 
the kde desktop, but there are a lot of gnome programs I'd rather use. 
And for a lot of stuff on RH9, there doesn't seem to be either.

Sorry for whining,

-Charles