CHAPTER 29 Installing Software One (Freelance web design)
CHAPTER 29 Installing Software One of the fun aspects of running any operating system is the ability to expand it to add in new software over time to improve your workflow or just for entertainment value. Linux is blessed in this regard, because tens of thousands of software titles are available to meet just about every need. However, if you ve tracked down the ideal software title, there s just one barrier to overcome: actually installing it on your system. Installing software under Ubuntu isn t the same as with Windows. Users are afforded a lot more power over what happens to their system, but this comes at the expense of needing to take a little time to understand the terminology and techniques. In this chapter, you ll learn the basics of software installation under Ubuntu. Then we ll take a closer look at how the Synaptic Package Manager works. Next, you ll learn how to install software from the command prompt. Finally, we ll cover installing from source. Software Installation Basics Installing programs on Windows is relatively easy. If you wish to use the Winamp media player, for example, you can browse to the web site, download the installer .exe file, and install the software. Although you might not realize it, a lot of work goes into making this seemingly simple task possible. Once the original software has been created by the programmers, it must be made into a form that you, the end user, can use. The first thing to happen is that the software is compiled. This is the process of turning the source code created by programmers into an actual file (or set of files) that can be used on a daily basis. On most systems, compiling source code involves a lot of number crunching. This takes time whole days, in some cases. Once the program files have been compiled, there needs to be a way they can be installed on various systems and easily transported across the Internet. This is where packaging comes into the equation. Programs usually consist of many files. To make each program file individually available would present the risk of some getting lost or corrupted, and the program wouldn t work. Therefore, the files are usually combined into a single archive file, or package. In addition, third-party system files are added to ensure compatibility on all computers and an extra program, called an installer, is added so that users can quickly get the files onto their system. All of this means that, to be able to install a program like Winamp on Windows, you just need to download the installer .exe file and run it once. No more work is necessary. Linux is a little more involved, largely because it never assumes that users want their environment to be simplistic and with limited options. However, most Linux distributions still embrace the paradigm of packaging installation files.