Installing Applications

[Ray Parrish]

Bill Wright wrote:
> I am new to  Ubuntu 8.10. How do I install applications other than those
> listed in the listing add/remove programs?
>
>
>
>   
By "other than those in the listing add/remove programs" I am assuming 
that you mean you want to install programs which are not listed in the 
repositories, and available via the package mangers within Ubuntu. This 
is not always very straightforward or easy.

If you download a program from the web, which is in a .deb package, 
there is a GUI handler which will pop up when you double click the .deb 
package, and it will take care of installing it for you. For other 
package types, there will usually be installation instructions available 
for them at the web site you download them from, or possibly contained 
within the tarball or zipfile you download.

These instructions may include the necessity to compile the program from 
source code provided, so familiarity with the process of compiling 
programs under the language the program is written in, and having that 
language's compiler already installed on your system, is usually a 
prerequisite to installing things that are provided in this manner.

Some programs you install in this manner will have very cryptic, or even 
incomplete, instructions for their installation and configuration, and 
can be a real nightmare to get working correctly. some people are just 
better at writing documentation than others. 8-)

Keep in mind that installing packages in this manner will prevent them 
from being automatically updated, [as all of the software you install 
via the package managers within Ubuntu are], so you will have to check 
for, download, and install updates for these programs yourself manually.

Later, Ray Parrish

-- 
http://www.rayslinks.com/ Web index of human reviewed links.
<http://www.rayslinks.com/Troubleshooting%20and%20fixing%20Windows.html>
Trouble shooting and Fixing Windows
http://www.writingsoftheschizophrenic.com My poetry in web pages