linux tips

Introduction

Ubuntu has a number of applications preinstalled, such as Firefox, Evolution, Open Office and Gimp. This is a pretty complete package, but hey, this is Linux and we want to make our own choices. Fortunately there are more than 24.000 (!) applications and software packages at your disposal.

Perhaps you’re accustomed to installing Windows applications by “simply” manually downloading the installer of an application that you fancy, from some website. In Ubuntu this works differently and even easier. You don’t download anything manually from a website anymore. Instead, you install only from the software repositories of Ubuntu itself. A lot easier, because you don’t have to spend time searching. No more manual downloads!

The advantages: ease and security
The advantages of installing from the repositories are twofold: it’s easy and it’s secure. Not only is the software in the repositories safe, but all applications that you install from them, are being kept safe on your computer by the centralized update function.

The updates from Ubuntu apply not only to Ubuntu itself, but also to all software that has been installed from the repositories!

Two different ways of installing

There are two ways to install an application: through “Add/Remove …” or through “Synaptic Package Manager”.

Installing software is also possible by using the terminal. This third way is less suitable for beginners. So I won’t explain it further here. At the end of this page I’ll explain something about a fourth way: installing manually like in Windows. This fourth way bypasses the inherent security of the repositories and is therefore discouraged.

1. Add/Remove…

By far the easiest way to install applications is this:

1. Establish internet connection.

2. Applications - Add/Remove …

3. Show: “all available applications” (by clicking the arrow next to the box). Now wait a little, because Ubuntu is retrieving new software lists from the internet.

4. In the “Search” box, type the name of the application you want, for example epiphany if you want to install the lightweight web browser Epiphany. Or a descriptive term, like web browser. The search begins automatically, don’t press Enter.

5. Tick the application (in the example: Epiphany web browser) and press the button “Apply changes”.

6. That’s it! Epiphany will be downloaded and installed automatically. A menu item for Epiphany will be added automatically to Applications - Internet.

Note: “Add/Remove…” only gives you access to the most popular applications in the repositories, not to all available applications.

2. Synaptic Package Manager

With Synaptic Package Manager you can install all 24.000 applications that are in the software repositories of Ubuntu.

Synaptic also works with queries, much like you use Google. In order to use it, you need to establish internet connection first.

Synaptic can be used like this: for example, you’re looking for a simple word processor that’s faster than Open Office Writer, but has more features than the simple text editor Gedit. You’ve heard of the application Abiword, and you want to give it a try.

Synaptic can be found under System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager.

Press the Search button in the toolbar of Synaptic and type abiword in the popup screen.

Press Search in the popup screen.

Synaptic will then present you with a number of software packages that have something to do with Abiword. In most cases you simply choose the package with the most appropriate name, in this case abiword (or abiword-gnome). Notice also the description of the package, which appears below when you click on a package.

Tick abiword (or abiword-gnome) and press the button Apply in the toolbar.

Now Synaptic fetches Abiword from the repositories of Ubuntu, along with the necessary supporting files, and installs it for you. A menu item will be added automatically in Applications - Office.

Easy as can be!

Avoid using it: manual installation

Manual installation, like in Windows, is also possible in Ubuntu. But this is discouraged, because it bypasses the inherent security of the software repositories! Also you won’t have the benefit of the centralized update function, for manually installed software.

For manual installation you’ll need to download an installer with the extension .deb (from Debian: Ubuntu is based on Debian). Simply doubleclick it like you would a Windows installer (.exe) in Windows.

Installers with the extension .rpm (Red Hat Package Management) are useless in Ubuntu: those are installers made for other kinds of Linux distributions that are rpm-based.

You can also manually install Linux software that has no installer. But that’s an awful job and definitely not suitable for beginners.

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