Living free with Linux: Round 2
- 12 March, 2009 09:45
- Comments 3
If you're a Linux newbie, your best bet is to use a package manager like the Synaptic Package Manager for installing, updating and uninstalling software.
Last month, in "Living free with Linux: 2 weeks without Windows," I wrote about what life was like for a longtime Windows user trying to live with Linux. One of the main drawbacks: The difficulties I encountered when installing or updating software.
Loads of people responded with advice for newbies and Windows refugees on installing and updating software in Linux. I've learned a lot from them, as well as from my colleague Steven Vaughn-Nichols' blog.
So here's what newbies need to know before installing and updating software in Linux.
One note before I begin: This article describes how to install and update software in Ubuntu 8.04. Although the advice generally applies to Linux, there may be variations for other Linux versions.
Understanding the Linux world
Because Windows has a near-monopoly on desktop operating systems, Windows users tend to think that the world revolves around them and that all operating systems operate alike. In fact, that's not the case. When it comes to installing and updating software, Linux uses a very different set of paradigms than Windows does, and if you're a longtime Windows user, as I am, you'll need to understand them before you can properly update and install software.
First, there is no single version of Linux, controlled by a single company, in the same way that there is a single version of Windows, controlled by Microsoft. Instead, there are multiple versions of Linux, called distributions, or distros for short. Ubuntu, Red Hat, Gentoo and Fedora are all examples of Linux distros.
Why is this important? Because when you install software, you need to install a version specifically written to work with your Linux distribution.
However, that may be easier than it sounds. In Linux, the way you install and update software is intimately tied to the operating system itself. As a result, in most cases, you'll be able to install software without even knowing your distribution (although it certainly helps if you run into problems). For example, it helped me to know that the file extension for Ubuntu software is .deb.
Next, you need to understand how software is distributed and installed in Linux, which is different from the way it is distributed in Windows.
In Windows, you typically install software by downloading and running a self-contained installer file. In Linux, software necessary for installation or update is stored in an online repository, which your version of Linux then contacts to perform the installation or update.
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Comments
Oblong
Distribution updates
You say, "Worse yet, I use Version 8.04 of Ubuntu, and Version 8.10 is available, but I can't find a way to upgrade to it."
In Synaptic: Settings|Respositories|Updates and for "Release Upgrade" select "Normal Releases". When an update (even a minor one) prompts you, there will be an additional notification at the top of the list of updates telling you about the new distribution, with an "Upgrade" button.
xine
installing other software not in Synaptic
As long as you know the software name, for Ubuntu you can google "name deb", if you get a result you can download it and click open either in Firefox download tool window of in the folder you saved it. This will open the install manager window which will let you know if the software can be installed. i.e. if the shared library dependencies are satisfied.
As you mention, you need to stop thinking like you've been trained to do by Microsoft. Some of the things you mention as being part of, or in built into the OS are actually not, as Linux is a modular system, and most tools and utilities are just regular programs that talk to the OS in the way any normal non Microsoft Windows application would.
In the real computing world as distinct from the one that Microsoft markets, the OS is the bit that controls and interfaces with exclusively hardware and supplies application programming interfaces so that applications can use this controlled hardware.
Programs like window managers, package managers, network managers and the like are not part of, or built into the OS but are separate applications that use the services supplied by the OS to "talk" to the hardware.
Because Linux the OS is Open Source, you can download the source code through your package manager and actually see that you won't find any of the programs you mention in the operating system.
Another good way for you to understand is to install VirtualBox on your Ubuntu machine and download the 10MB TinyCore iso and run this in a VB virtual machine. All this VM gives you is the Linux OS and a very simplistic windowing user interface application, plus a few GUI utilities. You have to download and install, through the TC package manager all the programs you have been trained to think belong in the OS.
Once you have got this far, you are well on the way to appreciating the wonderful KISS concepts that Thompson, Richie, Joy, and Torvalds have given the computing world, and through the power of marketing alone, the opposing ones from Microsoft.
Alex
you make it sound hard
I like to install software on Ubuntu which is not in the reositories, or is available at a newer version than in the repos by using Ubuntu's 'ppa' (personal package archives). See here: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ppas
example: search for qgis (a great, simple GIS software). Choose qgis (the top one) then choose your Ubuntu version (I use intrepid, you have installed gutsy). Now select these 2 lines. (the deb http://...) open "software sources" (system-admin-software sources) and add the two lines to the third party software section. Now you need to add the apt key, see the authentication section.
This way when you update your system it will update this NEW SOFTWARE TOO!
BTW: You should just update ALL the software in the update dialog, it is safer this way. Unlike Windows, there is no BAD software in UBuntu and you should keep all of it up to date (and can do this easily).
So re-check all those checkboxes next to software you don't know.
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