Installing Linux apps: A few good tips

Sooner or later, we all end up installing new software on our computers. Whether it's a new version of Firefox, or a cool game, or a video editing package, there comes a time when you want to make your system do more than it can do now.

Under Linux, installing new applications isn't a particularly hard task, but installations do come in several different varieties, so it's worth understanding the differences and what you'll need to know to make them work.

Option 1: Use the built-in package manager
The easiest way to get new software onto a Linux system is to use the integrated package management system that is included with your distribution. You can use the package manager to download thousands of software packages that have been pre-built and tested for your specific version of Linux.

In Linux, software packages are usually equivalent to applications, although an application may in fact consist of several packages. For example, a graphics editor app may be made up of a package with the main program, a package with the documentation, and a package with the system libraries that the application needs to run.

One advantage of using an integrated package manager is that it will usually download and install all the related packages that your chosen package depends on. With a live Internet connection, you can download everything you need in one operation.

Another advantage to using the built-in package manager is that the system will periodically check for upgrades to your newly installed package(s), which means that they will stay up to date -- although as mentioned below, "up to date" is a relative concept with packages.

The package management system used in Debian-based distributions (including Ubuntu) is called the Synaptic Package Manager and is found under the System menu. If you know the name of the package you want to install, you can also install it from the command line by typing
sudo apt-get install packagename

where packagename is the name of your chosen software package. Be aware that the names can be a little quirky.

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