Everything is taken care of for you.
That being said, there are things that are not completely obvious to starters.
Most Linux distributions that are aimed at average users have a package management tool.
RedHat and Fedora have RPM, Debian/Ubuntu/Mint has APT, Arch has Pacman and so on.
Choosing one to have a detailed look at, it would be APT package management in Ubuntu.
So here we go:
Repositories
There are tons of software utility and tools available in Linux.
There has to be a way to organise them somehow.
Repositories are like archives of software that runs on your rig.
In Ubuntu world, repositories are classified into 4 categories - Main, Restricted, Universe and Multiverse.
This categorization is based different levels of support.
Anyhow, enabling repositories is very easy.
Go to System > Administration > Software Sources and then you might simply check/uncheck to enable/disable repositories.
The choices however, are limited.
It is the easiest way to do so.
It can be accessed via System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.
you’ve got the option to also use the search functionality to find what you need.
Then click Apply and you will be shown an overview of what all will be changed on your setup.
Accept or Cancel as the case may be.
This however is the age of the Internet and we don’t want to wait all that time.
So how can you install software that is not in the repositories?
Keep in mind that Google Picasa, Google Earth, Chrome are not available via repositories.
Likes of Banshee and Gwibber were not in the repositories till some time back.
In that case, you should probably use what’s called Personal Package Archives.
There is nothing new or scary about these puppies.
To add a PPA:
Visit the PPA page of the software (An example).
It houses the important details that you would need in the following steps.
Go to System > Administration > Software Sources, then onto the Other Software tab.
hit the Add button and then paste in the line that starts withdeband corresponds to your Ubuntu version.
Click Close and Ubuntu will reload package information.
See the screen above.
Did you find that brief explanation helpful?
