Hi Tableteers,

My thanks to those above for your help in pointing me towards a solution to my conundrum. After barking up several wrong trees, in the end it involved using the Application Manager's 'red pill mode' to install Python 2.5, after which I could install and run Nicotine.

I worked for 13 years in IT support in a UK university, including supporting Apollo workstations running unix, so I expect I've a good deal more 'accredited prior learning' than many a NIT newbie. But it still took me many hours (over two days) of painstaking research, piecing together fragmented clues with educated guesswork, correcting for superceded info, and filtering out red herrings, to FINALLY discover the solution. Which leaves me wondering, did I just encounter an atypically convoluted conundrum? Or is this kind of arcane puzzle par for the course when trying 'simple' app installations under OS2008?

And am I obliged to post a step-by-step how-to (of the kind I used to write for non-tech-savvy undergrad & postgrad students), of the type I wish I'd found two days ago, to help those who come after seeking a similar solution? Or would that just be running a fool's errand by contributing another sliver to "The Mirror Crack'd" of fragmented clues?