from the fedorafaq.com site:

Q: Is there anything like apt for Fedora?
A: APT is a program for Debian Linux that installs not only the software you specify, but also all of that software's dependencies. It makes installing software much easier.

There is a piece of software like this for Fedora, that comes in the standard Fedora installation. It's called yum. It can automatically download and install a program and all of its dependencies, with just one command. 

    *  To see a list of available software:

      yum list available

    * To install some software, you type:

      yum install packagename

    * To update some software, you type:

      yum update packagename

      If you leave out "packagename" yum will update all your software.

    * To see what updates are available, you can do:

      yum check-update

    * To search for a package, you can do:

      yum search word

as you can see, the commands for yum aren't much different then the ones for apt.
I switch back and forth between Fedora and Debian, and the commands I use are
pretty much the same between apt and yum. 

I realize that fedorafaq.com hasn't been updated for Fedora 11 and 12 yet, but the  FAQ still applies to Fedora 11 and 12, when it comes to that anyway.  The other stuff, like installing Java and specific packages, hasn't been updated, but the only differences are where it says  fc10   change that to fc12, but otherwise, the faq still applies to fc12 and probably beyond.  I think they just get lazy updating the site. lol

PS. Just noticed today that my doctors office uses Fedora on all its PCs. Cool huh?

Regards,
Christoph

my main PC is a custom built  Athlon 64 3200+,  but what I have Fedora on is my laptop
my laptop is an

HP Pavilian dv6-1350us
Core 2 Duo T6600 2.2 GHz
15.6" TFT display
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM
Intel GMA 4500MHD Dynamic Video
Intel WiFi Link 1000  eithernet wifi card

really I couldn't have picked a better laptop for Linux, least I don't think.

Tech specs

I tried 14 other discs,  and tried redownloading it at least a dozen times,
from both the torrent, and direct download, making sure to check the
md5 checksums, passes every time, still same error occurs.

This just happens booting with the disc in the CD drive,
thats the same error I get every time.

I have a 20mbps  FIOS connection, so not real sure why this is happening to me
The Fedora 12 DVD works, so does the other Live CD spins  *shrugs*
I just don't like the others because I don't like KDE or Gnome.

I guess you used unetbootin to create a bootable USB key from the ISO image, right? Please don't, unetbootin is broken. Use liveusb-creator or livecd-iso-to-disk from the livecd-tools package.

Regards,
Christoph

error  [drm:drm_mode_rmfb] *ERROR* tried to remove an fb that we don't own. 
Boot has failed. sleeping forever.

what does all that mean??  so far, this same error is occuring on 4 completely different PC's and Laptop's.
are you sure this is a functional Fedora spin?

Thanks.

This new version includes many enhancements, new programs and lots of updated packages.

New packages:

• modiri as a lightweight alternative to firexfox *

• parole as additional media player to totem. *

• Xfburn instead of gnomebaker

• xfce4-notifyd instead of Gnome's notification daemon

• Lots of Plugins for claws-mail

• catfish instead of tracker

* We know that it's funny two have two web browsers or two media players, but we want to gather feedback from users and completely switch to the Xfce counterparts in Fedora 13 if everything goes well.

New features:

• More Xfce!

• More panel plugins such as xfce4-stopwatch-plugin

• Fast user switching with the xfswitch-plugin

• New version of the XFWM4 Nodoka theme with "shade" button, hover effects and free button placement

• Plus all the great Fedora 12 features

For more info, please visit http://spins.fedoraproject.org/xfce
ISO images are available at http://spins.fedoraproject.org/xfce/#downloads. If you want to install this on a computer without CD ROM drive, please use liveusb-creator or livecd-iso-to-disk (but not unetbootin!) to create a bootable USB Key.

Feedback and suggestions for the next version of the spin are welcome!

Have fun,
Christoph