Renzatic on 25/8/2009 at 07:49

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I found the synaptic package manager shortly after posting. It's better than hitting up the terminal, but still not as streamlined as I'd like. For example, I've been on this little quest to install a docklike application inside of Ubuntu here. After many trials, tribulations, and far too many steps, I manage to install the Avant Window Navigator. I get it, get Compiz Fusion so the thing will run, and find out that Virtualbox doesn't play well with even the most simple OpenGL programs.

So, long story short, I find a good 2D replacement and want to uninstall Compiz. I hit up Synaptic and do a search. It brings up EVERYTHING to do with Compiz. File relating directly to Compiz, dependencies from other programs, I mean it just goes ON. I don't know what to safely delete here, so I just leave it installed and do a metacity --replace in the terminal to get the old software windows manager back up before installing Xcompmanager.

I'll admit that most of my problems can be chalked up to the fact I'm not used to the thing yet. But still, even if I were to become a complete whiz in the terminal, it still takes far too many steps just to do something as simple as an install. For example, (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2934/avant-window-navigator-installation-and-configuration-guide/) this is what I had to do to install Avant. That's alot of shit to go through. A ridiculous amount of hoops you have to jump through just to install something. It also didn't help that the above guide, as indepth as it seemingly is, didn't explain things too throughly. Even with the guide, I had to do some lateral thinking to get it to work...all for just a damn dock UI.

Now I can see the advantages of Linux. It's file structure, how everything is broken down modularly, it's a organizers/tinkerers paradise. If you know exactly what you're doing, you can bend the entire OS to your will. But for everyone else, the thing is just too esoteric. Admittedly, once you get everything you need installed, it can be quite nice. But getting there...that's the problem.

At least this taught me some empathy. I now know how my mom feels everytime she's got some dumb computer question.

jay pettitt on 25/8/2009 at 08:54

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Wow, you look just the same.

Okay...

Installing Software 101.

The easy way.
Go to the Applications menu. Pick Add/Remove.
Browse through the available programs or use the search box to find something specific (Avant or Blender perhaps?) - tick the check box (or untick to uninstall)
Click Apply.
Done. No, really.

(note that there is a show: menu in the middle up the top that lets you restrict browsing to opensouce software, officially maintained software, installed software or browse all available packages etc ~ this can trip you up if you're looking for avant for example, but only searching officially maintained packages. I leave this on 'Show: All available packages' most of the time)

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The fairly easy way.
The Add/Remove... software widget makes installing stuff so so simple it's silly, but sometimes it's not gutsy enough. Like raevol says, go to the System menu, click Administration then choose the Synaptic Package Manager (linux calls bundled up program installation files "packages"). The package manager works much like the add/remove widget, but gives you much more control than you usually need. Nearly everything you could do using sudo apt-get you can do from the Synaptic Package Manager, using the command line is optional.

Everything that you install using apt-get, the Synaptic Package Manager or the Add/Remove... widget will be managed by Ubuntu, new versions will be updated automagically and so on. You don't have to lift a finger.

This is all made possible because teams of volunteers constantly maintain a great big database of ubuntu software in the sky called a repository. If this sounds like a menacing communist scheme to control your PC and put fluoride in your water, you'd be right.

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What about if I want to install something not on the repository

No problem. You just need to find and download a debian package .deb file (a bit like an .exe file). Click on it, hit install and you're done. It will be added to the list of files in the Synaptic Package Manager, which is where you want to go to uninstall it.

Also, there are lots of different repositories maintained by all sorts of different people you can choose to subscribe/unsubscribe to if you're keen.

Beyond that software can also be installed manually.

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Yeah, but I still can't play DVDs, play/encode MP3s watch movies on YouTube yadda yadda grrr!
One of the first things they don't tell you about Linux is that it has a funny relationship with copyright and licensing. Partly this is because some backward countries (looking at you America) have a nasty combination of punitive copyright laws and monopolistic institutions that control licensing that make it, for example, illegal to watch DVDs on your computer without obtaining a license - and partly this is because Linux has a tradition of being squeaky clean and rejecting anything with a restriction.

What this means is that all sorts of every day desktop PC stuff is withheld from the standard repository. The easiest way around this is to subscribe to the Ubuntu Multiverse repository and the easiest way to do that is to use the Add/remove... widget and look up and install a package called Ubuntu Restricted Extras - that package contains all the files you need to illegally watch DVDs, break the law by listening to your music collection and so on. It also contains Flash, a bunch of fonts like Times New Roman and all the good stuff that makes you feel like you're not lost at sea without a paddle.

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One of the reasons the Avant Window Navigator is a pain in the arse to install is because it's early beta and hasn't been properly packaged up for public consumption, which is a bit of a tease. Also MrWindowsHead, you went and did it the Windows way and tried to get stuff by finding things on websites and downloading files manually. If you wanted a dock bar, an easier way would have been to start the Add/Remove... widget and type dock bar into the seach box, pick one, then click Apply. An unofficial packaged up version of Avant is available from the list :)

Searching for Desklets would also have yielded fruit.

As for themes - go to the System menu, pick Preferences, then Appearance. Done. Obviously you can download new stuff from the interwebs.

raevol on 25/8/2009 at 11:25

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They really do need to streamline adding repositories, which I think they are working on, but honestly aside from the hassle of copy pasting things, package repositories are one of my favorite things about Ubuntu. Instead of having to comb various websites every few weeks for updates to all my programs, they deliver and install themselves with just a few clicks.

Also, I really don't like docks. Just personal preference. ;)

Brian The Dog on 26/8/2009 at 11:47

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I'm kinda asking the same question. I installed Ubuntu to a 8Gb Flash Drive to play around with it a bit more seriously than with the live CD, got it to play DVD's ok, and then haven't touched it since.

I like the idea of Linux (free OS with lots of useful apps also freely available), but if you've already got Windows + Office, then most people wouldn't bother to switch. Most of the apps don't seem as good as the Windows versions I've purchased, e.g. g++ vs. Visual Studio, g++ may give you better optimised binaries but the error messages when you get something wrong are pretty unintelligible to me :(

Ubuntu has done a lot for Linux, making the installation process easy and providing free basic tools that are good enough for most people. If I was setting up an office for someone who answered emails, wrote letters and so on, then Ubuntu would be fine and would save loads of money. It's if you want to do stuff more advanced - you can do it in Linux, but I've found the Windows tools more user-friendly.

Oh, and Dethtoll, that is SO true! When I first installed Ubuntu, I tried installing the graphics drivers from a bash shell, and it uninstalled XWindows :(

Griffin Bain on 26/8/2009 at 17:18

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I downloaded Kubuntu 9.04 last night and the md5sum was good, but I couldn't burn it because I didn't have a disc and I was not happy with the burning software on that computer.

I believe a good open source windows burner program is 'infra recorder'. Its for sure better than sonic and the like. Actually, can you even burn .iso files without an open source burner program? I've always used open source software for burning linux live cds/install disks?