I really love Ubuntu and have been using it for 3 years or so and I thought I could help new users by explaining simple things but not so obvious when you're a beginner. For instance, when i first installed Ubuntu, it took me a week or so to learn that i can install applications through a simple terminal command and I don't need to go to a website, download, then install it and so on and many other things a user does not expect, coming from Windows.
So, for this first part of a long series of newbie/beginner Ubuntu tips & tricks, I'm going to talk about how to install applications through Synaptic / apt-get command.
As I said above, in Ubuntu (and most Linux distro's) you don't need to go to, say Firefox website in order to install Firefox, you just need either:
1. Open a terminal and type: sudo apt-get install "application_name"
Replace "application_name" with the name of the application you want to install, without the quotes. So if you wanted to install Firefox, you would write: sudo apt-get install firefox
For this, you need to know the exact name of the applications. If you don't, you can use:
2. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, then click "Search" and enter the name or part of the name of the application you want to install:
then right click it and select "Mark for installation", then Apply. You are going to be prompted if additional files need to be installed and if so, click yes/ok.
You can of course uninstall applications the same way, either through Synaptic, or using a terminal: sudo apt-get remove <application_name>
You can also add additional repositories, which are some 'channels' from where Ubuntu downloads these applications, but about the repositories i'm going to write in the next episode of this Ubuntu Newbie Guide.
So, for this first part of a long series of newbie/beginner Ubuntu tips & tricks, I'm going to talk about how to install applications through Synaptic / apt-get command.
As I said above, in Ubuntu (and most Linux distro's) you don't need to go to, say Firefox website in order to install Firefox, you just need either:
1. Open a terminal and type: sudo apt-get install "application_name"
Replace "application_name" with the name of the application you want to install, without the quotes. So if you wanted to install Firefox, you would write: sudo apt-get install firefox
For this, you need to know the exact name of the applications. If you don't, you can use:
2. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, then click "Search" and enter the name or part of the name of the application you want to install:
then right click it and select "Mark for installation", then Apply. You are going to be prompted if additional files need to be installed and if so, click yes/ok.
You can of course uninstall applications the same way, either through Synaptic, or using a terminal: sudo apt-get remove <application_name>
You can also add additional repositories, which are some 'channels' from where Ubuntu downloads these applications, but about the repositories i'm going to write in the next episode of this Ubuntu Newbie Guide.
